The Malta women’s national team will resume its UEFA Women’s Euro 2021 qualification campaign when they host Georgia, this evening at the Centenary Stadium (kick-off: 18.30).
The Maltese girls will be striving for a positive result as they look to carry on with the wave of enthusiasm that has been surrounding the team after their bright showings of late.
Led by coach Mark Gatt, the Maltese side gave a good account against strong nations like Israel, Switzerland and Turkey.
In their last home qualifier, back in November, Malta clinched their first point in this group in a 1-1 draw against Israel, ranked 66th in the world.
Moreover, Gatt’s team also left a good impression in the January tests against Switzerland (2-2) and Turkey (1-2).
Gatt will be hoping that the team can reproduce the same performances to keep the Maltese flag flying high in this group while boosting the women’s game here.
“Our aim is to continue to improve our level of football,” Gatt told the Times of Malta.
“I believe in our collective strength and if the players push themselves, there is nothing that can stop us from obtaining a positive result against Georgia.”
Among the players called up for this game is youth forward Haley Bugeja of Mġarr United.
Bugeja, 15, is already making a name for herself after topping the U-19’s and senior league’s top scorer lists last season and was also named Player of the Year.
This season, she continued where she had left off in the previous campaign as she has already scored 23 league goals for the Greens. Bugeja also netted her first international goal in a 2-1 defeat to Turkey, in January.
Virus disruption
“Haley Bugeja is a very promising player whom I wanted to call up to give her the national team experience as soon as she could become available to us due to the age restrictions,” Gatt explained.
“I don’t want to put a lot of expectations on her to avoid any burnout – we want her to integrate with our team at her own pace as we believe a lot in her.”
Malta’s preparations were not as smooth as planned, following the disruptions that the fast-spreading coronavirus created worldwide, including in Malta.
In fact, Gatt can’t rely on three important players for today’s commitment as Nicole Sciberras, who plays for the youth team of Juventus, Pink Bari’s Shona Zammit and Ylenia Carabott, of Chievo Fortitudo, are not available for the Georgia match due to restrictions from health authorities as they are based in the Italian regions which are mostly afflicted by the coronavirus.
This decision is somewhat conflicting to what is happening in the Italian national teams with team-mates of the aforementioned Maltese players, who are also based in the same Italian regions, are still representing their countries in various international tournaments which underlines the lack of consistency that exists on such procedures.
“The coronavirus issue was something that we were not prepared for and which has taken away from us three valuable players,” Gatt underlined.
“Unfortunately, we had to accept such decision and move on with our preparations with a new plan.
“On the other hand, I feel that this will serve as an opportunity for other players to step up.”
Meanwhile, Georgia are still without a point in these qualifiers after losing their opening five games in this group.