Friendly: Malta vs Liechtenstein

Malta gets all the friendly matches seriously as it is one of the few opportunities they have for some victories. They will play with full squad against Liechtenstein, which won 7-1 in the past, home win worth here.

The poor progress in Euro Qualifiers with only one point in eight games, and generally that Malta did not get many positive results during the last two years, brought coach John Buttigieg and assistant coach Carmel Busittil to be both sacked. A temporary replacement until further notice is Robert Gatt, who made already several surprises in the team roster, as he called four new players for the first time. Malta fell into a group of giants in the World Cup qualifiers (Italy, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Denmark and Armenia) and although they never had hopes of qualifying, to make even one victory again seems impossible. Last year Malta to two friendly games at domestic ground had a victory (2-1 against Central Africa) and a draw (0-0 against Switzerland), while in 2010 they took a 1-1 draw against FYR Macedonia, losing the other two friendlies against Germany and Finland. Generally Malta scores to their friendly games, in 2009 they achieved four goals in five matches, having not scored only against Czech Republic (0-1).

Liechtenstein can be located about 20 positions over Malta in the FIFA rankings and succeeded in EURO qualifiers to win at home against Lithuania, but at friendly games they show some boredom and usually lose easily. Last year they lost 1-2 against Switzerland and 0-5 against Hungary, while the year before had managed to get two draws against Iceland and Estonia. In the last four official games, however, they are with a record of 0-1-3, scoring no goals and receiving twelve. They have some problems for the game against Malta, as strikers Hassler (Vaduz) and Thomas Beck (FC Balzers) are both out. Liechtenstein won last year away to San Marino with the score of 0-1, a victory that is the only away win for their team over the last eight years.

Malta with a new coach and all squad fit, has the players to achieve even one goal against Liechtenstein. Daniel Bogdanovic, Andre Schembri and Michael Mifsud, can do the difference, while the guests have some absents in front line, and although the match is a friendly one, home win at these odds are well acceptable for me.

Bet: Malta Win @2.00 with Bet365