by Malta and Croatia will be facing each other in a friendly once more this evening at 17:00 at the Centenary Stadium. Coaches Manuela Tesse and Nenad Gracan gave an update on the squads following Friday’s encounter, while hinting at more experimentation as the window of opportunity closes before February’s competitive matches.
Recovering From Opening Match
The two nations will have had just under 72 hours to get set for their second encounter of the window when the kick-off whistle blows this evening.
Manuela Tesse suggested Friday’s match raised no new niggles within the team, who the coach suggested is mostly ready to pick up where they left off, “Players are good overall. Maya Lucia still has some niggle carried from Belarus which we thought had gone away but realised it hasn’t on Friday. Giulia D’Antuono also has a little something but should be nothing major for the match.”
Provided the same question, Croatia’s Nenad Gracan weighed in on how the team is set for the fixture following Friday’s defeat, “Everything is okay, mentally we are ready. We played a very good match on Friday, considering that we are a young team. We made two mistakes and unfortunately we lost, but we are satisfied with the match. We had good possession.”
License To Experiment & Thoughts On A 5 PM Slot
As for the mood, Manuela Tesse suggested the team is not ready to step off the gas just because of Friday’s victory, with sights set on making the most of the second friendly against Croatia. She said, “We must correct things we saw on Friday and also try a few things. We want to maximise the utility of this friendly. We have the chance to try some things with no limit on substitutions and this is the priority for the match.”
“It’s our final chance to try some things before February’s competitive matches, we already tried some things against Croatia which came off. However, we want to utilise this one as well and see the impact. I wanted to try some things against Belarus but it looked like the team was settled in that match. So, in this one I want to use the opportunity.”
Nenad Gracan suggested he is continuing on the long-term goal of giving opportunity to youngsters in search of enabling them to get the confidence ahead of the upcoming competitive fixtures in League C, “Of course, you would like to win. However, our priority remains to give chance to the younger players to get experience. So we will stick with the same approach and try to give everyone a chance. We are counting on them in the Qualification matches because we have a few older players whose places they will take so our priority remains to give opportunity to the young ones.”
Meanwhile, questioned on her thoughts about a fixture at 5 pm on a Monday, Manuela Tesse remarked this had to do with logistics, “We wanted to accomodate the direct flights of Croatia and this was the best way to do it. This is also why it is on Monday and not Tuesday.”
Given the same question on the Monday slot at 5 pm, Croatia’s Nenad Gracan declined to comment about the fixture scheduling, but suggested that the team is ready, “I don’t think the change of the kick-off time affects our team because they are used to playing at different parts of the day.”
The match will begin at 17:00 and will be played at the Centenary Stadium. It will also be live-streamed on the Malta FA Youtube Channel. Malta’s U19 Women’s National team will also be contesting Kazakhstan at 11:00 at the same stadium, while Israel face Latvia at the new National Football Centre in conclusion of the Group 6 UEFA Women’s U19 Qualification Championship matches. Malta is yet to earn points in the group. Malta’s U19 match will also be live-streamed on the Malta FA Youtube Channel.
Lead Image: Brandon Bonett
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