In view of their impending continental tournaments, including this year’s Euro Championship preliminary round, the ASA Under-19 team, comprising several players who also form part of the Under-17 squad, have been engaged in non-competitive matches during this year’s BOV Winter League both in the First Division and Premier League.

So far, they played six matches, four against lower division and two against top-flight sides, managing to win all of them while netting a total of 95 goals against 41 conceded.

Under the charge of coaches Karl Izzo and Anthony Farrugia, the youth team have stood their tests well during the winter matches, with the workouts proving to be very useful in the process of final selection of the squads.

The Under-17 team are currently playing in a 12-team tournament in Vienna, Austria, a competition which is expected to provide the youngsters with the necessary experience while also serving to gauge their strength against several European opponents considered to be more or less of our calibre.

They were drawn in Group A.

So far, they were beaten by South Africa 8-7 (1-0, 3-3, 3-2, 0-3) followed by victory over Ireland 23-4 (6-1, 5-1, 3-1, 9-1).

This morning, the Malta U-17 team play against Switzerland,

The Under-19 national side will be involved in the 2016 Euro Championship 19-team qualifying tournament to be staged in Malta early in May. Our team will be in Group A which also comprises Germany, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Slovenia.