by Malta and Belarus will meet for the first time at 18:00 at the Tony Bezzina Stadium, following the match between Albania and the Faroe Islands (14:00). Coach Manuela Tesse and Yuri Maleev gave their thoughts on the bearing of the friendly in respect to their UEFA Women’s Nations League ambitions.
Testing Trajectories
The Visit Malta Women’s International Friendlies tournament will close with the first time meet between Malta and Belarus. The two teams come into the match fresh off victories against the Faroe Islands and Albania, respectively.
Belarus come into the match as the highest ranked team, according to the FIFA Women’s World Rankings, at 57. The team competed in League B in the first phase of the UEFA Women’s Nations League, in a group against the Czech Republic, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Slovenia. The team was relegated after achieving two draws against Slovenia.
Considering Belarus’ involvement in League B, Malta’s Manuela Tesse was asked whether she considers the match as a real test to gauge the team’s current level against what will be required of the team in the upcoming competitive matches to be initiated in April. This, considering that the Malta achieved promotion from League C to go into League B in the previous round.
She weighed in, “Of course, I’ve been preparing the team in this tournament, including mentally, with the idea that in the next month we will be playing against teams like Belarus. For us it is a very good test to see if we are ready or what we need to improve to get there.”
Belarus’ coach Yuri Maleev confirmed that the team is approaching these fixtures with a firm sight on preparing for an immediate return to League B. He said, “Absolutely our aim is to be promoted as quickly as possible and I’m sure we will manage to cope with this task.”
In this regard, the friendly fixtures in the Visit Malta Women’s International Friendlies tournament act as a preparation for the upcoming phase of the UEFA Women’s Nations League & EURO Qualifications phase. The two teams will find out their respective opponents when the draw is held on March 5th.
Recovery & Match Expectations
Malta heads into the friendly on the back of a 2-0 victory over the Faroe Islands, which was played on Thursday. Asked about the morale of the team and the recovery from the match, Malta’s coach Manuela Tesse replied, “I was a little scared to be honest, but the recovery is very good and I think the team looks ready for tomorrow.”
The match against the Faroe Islands provided plenty of firsts for the Maltese team. It was a first victory over the opponent, a first time captain, included a debut and also a first goal. The match against Belarus provides another first as it will be the maiden encounter between the two nations.
However, Manuela Tesse rejected the notion that the team needs such instances to be motivated for a victory despite the friendly nature of the game providing no reward in terms of points. She said, “For us, the mentality is to go into the match and win the match. We make no distinction between a friendly and a competitive fixture in our preparation. I made it a point to change this mentality immediately when I had my first encounters last year against Luxembourg.”
Speaking about the milestones, Tesse continued, “These first times happened not because we wanted to hit these milestones to have something to celebrate, but because we needed to find players to come into the team because we were missing three very important players. I had to find the players to take their place and they responded well. It is not only firsts, but a player like Yulya Carella who made her second appearance, after she had debuted against Haiti. She had been doing well with her club in the league and so I think she deserved to have some minutes in the national team. For me, this is very important that players are performing well in the league.”
Meanwhile, Belarus won the match against Albania convincingly by 3-0, which coach Yuri Maleev was buoyed by, “Of course I’m happy about the result. It’s important to take into account that it is a friendly match and that we are in the preparatory phase for the competitive matches. We got together only recently for these friendlies so in Malta we have had only three training sessions and we managed to play quite a good game. However, I’m sure that we can show even better results because our line-up is still not the best that we could expect.”
Asked about the recovery of the players, the coach replied that the real assessment will be how the team manages the match against Malta and that this will give the best picture of handling the two in close proximity.
Yuri Maleev praised Malta’s performance against the Faroe Islands, “I watched the match and I really like the Maltese team. There is great experience from what I saw, so that’s a really good team to play against. Malta play aggressively and modern football. I was very impressed by Maria Farrugia, who played really well.”
The two countries will meet for the first time. Questioned about whether he views the fixture as an opportunity to try different players or if he is looking for creating consistency, Maleev replied, “It is still not the best because it does not show all of the players that we can have. Considering that we are still in the tournament conditions, we will likely continue with a similar set of players and use their experience.”
It promises to be an exciting encounter, with the overcast weather providing an extra test to contend with in the open pitch of the Tony Bezzina Stadium.
The match between Malta and Belarus begins at 18:00 and will follow the encounter between Albania and the Faroe Islands (14:00). A block ticket is still available for purchase online. The match between Malta and Belarus will also be broadcast live on TVM Sports+.
Lead Images: Lara Schembri / WFBelarus.
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