by Valletta and Mgarr United will conclude tonight’s double header at Dingli Ground, starting at 20:30. Valletta’s coach Jean Lopes is looking for his team to catch a break and earn reward for their efforts, while Mgarr United’s Ryan Vella is not underestimating the threat that the Citizens pose. The two coaches addressed probes about key absences ahead of the clash.
Opportunities Rued
Valletta and Mgarr United will return to action tonight in their first battle of the season. Valletta head into the match seeking their first points after their draw against Lija Athletic was overruled for registration infringements. Though they dominated the possession against Lija Athletic, the team had to crawl back an equaliser, before their ability to fend off Swieqi United was undone in the final twenty minutes of the match.
Jean Lopes gave his assessment of the performance, especially probed about the impact of the decision of Dorianne Theuma to deploy Emma Xuereb in attack, as well as his own decision to push Eduarda Martins Souza into midfield.
He said, “We knew that the match against Swieqi was going to be extremely difficult due to the technical and tactical quality of our opponents. In the same way we were feeling a bit more pressure with Emma Xuereb pressing us higher up the field, our opponents were certainly feeling it as well with the freedom we gave to Eduarda.”
However, the coach could not hide the disappointment on the impacts of a questionable penalty that opened the scoring in the match, “Unfortunately, due to another refereeing mistake, we conceded a goal from a penalty, which in my opinion was a turning point, especially when playing against a strong team like Swieqi.”
In this regard, Valletta’s coach welcomed the week break to allow the team to recuperate and head into tonight’s match with a positive mentality, “I believe so. This period without matches helped us absorb and learn from our mistakes in the last game. We worked hard during this time and I believe the team is ready once again to face another extremely tough opponent.”
Meanwhile, Mgarr United struck the post against Hibernians, but could not find a winning goal, with the two sharing the points on the first encounter of the season.
Ryan Vella suggested that his team should have done better to come away with the three points on the night, “We’ve watched the game back and we feel that we could have more out of our chances especially in the first half, where we controlled the majority of the half and were the better team. The second half was more balanced, but we limited Hibernians to very little goal-scoring opportunities. Overall we’re a bit disappointed, as we feel that we could have won the game.”
Squad News
Valletta have been keen to deploy their new signings, while having kept the majority their squad. However, Jean Lopes confirmed that the absence of Georgiana Mifsud will be a permanent one. He said, “Georgiana, after many years working with us, is unfortunately no longer part of our team due to personal reasons. It’s unfortunate because she knows how much I admire her football and how important she was to us. But life goes on, and we have other defenders with great potential who will surely step up to fill her absence.”
Mgarr United have also had a number of players who were among the squad last season conspicuously absent, including the likes of Chantelle Grech, Kelsey Vella and Angelique Schembri. Ryan Vella confirmed that the trio have walked away from the game due to personal reasons.
On the other hand, the Mgarr United coach confirmed that the delay in deploying Ann-Marie Said has been due to the player still working back through injury. He said, “Ann-Marie came back from the last international break with an injury. She’s been working very hard on her own to recover and started to train with the team during the past few weeks. We’re hoping we can give her the debut shortly, during one of the next few games. However, it will all depend on how she feels, making sure she’s recovered one hundred percent.”
Match Expectations
Mgarr United have history on their side for this one, while also having shown the better form. Valletta’s Jean Lopes praised the Greens’ start, “Mgarr, as always, came into this season with a very strong team. If they had some difficulty scoring against Hibernians, I believe it was certainly due to the high quality of Hibernians’ defenders, like Natalee Geren (who was one of the best centre-backs last season), Jessica Dimech and others.”
Asked about whether he is looking to deploy a tactically disciplined defence to frustrate the Greens or if he believes the team can go forward to down Mgarr United for the first time, Lopes replied, “Our team usually tries to maintain tactical discipline so we can neutralise the opponent’s attacks, while still maintaining good offensive consistency. We hope our strategy continues to work and we can have a good battle against such a highly-skilled team like Mgarr.”
His counterpart, Ryan Vella, is also aware of Valletta’s strengths and ability to frustrate his team, “Valletta are always a good team. They’re very well organised and in my opinion they were very unlucky in both games they played so far. It should be a good game and we need to be at our one hundred percent to win this match.”
His comments ahead of the match suggest that the Greens are aware of Valletta’s ability to mix their approach, and that he expects his team to be ready to counter the strategy, “We’ve analysed them well and we’ll make sure our team is prepared for both situations, whether facing a high press or a low block.”
The two teams will conclude tonight’s double header at Dingli Ground. The match begins at 20:30, following the clash between San Gwann & Lija Athletic (18:00).
Lead Image: Lara Schembri
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