by Mtarfa and Lija Athletic will be meeting at the Charles Abela Stadium tonight at 20:30. Coaches Gaetano Papaleo and Jethron Azzopardi provided their assessment on the back of last week’s defeats, with hopes set on an interesting encounter tonight.
In Search Of Better Showings
The two teams will head into tonight’s encounter at the Charles Abela Stadium on the back of defeats. Mtarfa are yet to register a point after heavy defeats to Mgarr United, San Gwann and Hibernians. Meanwhile, Lija Athletic suffered a 2-1 defeat to San Gwann, which stunted the momentum in their initial strong start.
Despite falling to a big defeat, Mtarfa were holding to a 2-0 scoreline against Hibernians at half-time. However, the Paolites stormed to a big win with a strong second half.
Questioned on the potential impacts of having several players playing in the U19 league two days prior, Mtarfa’s Gaetano Papaleo replied, “The problem was that we don’t make changes. We had a good first half, but then the U19 players stopped after forty-five minutes. When you are forced to change four to five players after forty-five minutes, it is difficult to keep the organisation. The new signings can help us, of course.”
On the other hand, Lija Athletic’s Jethron Azzopardi assessed his team’s narrow defeat to San Gwann, “We were aware that their foreign players gave them a boost and for this game they were utilised in midfield to control the game. It was something that we expected and had to counter for it. In the end, they won the game, with a single goal making the difference, after losing a key player on injury early in the second half.”
Jethron Azzopardi shuffled around his players for the match, with Shakira Bugeja and Rachel Mifsud swapping places, while Ylenia Azzopardi also advanced to midfield during the match.
Questioned about these decisions, Lija Athletic’s coach admitted the struggles in dealing with a smaller squad, “At the moment we are missing two key players, so we have to rotate our players and find solutions within our squad. We have our limitations and we are trying to do our best to try and win each game. Obviously luck is not on our end.”
Match Expectations
Last season the matches started off fairly even, but by the end of the season Lija Athletic had a strong upper hand on the Blues. Mtarfa’s Gaetano was tight-lipped about expectations, instead focusing on the strengths of his opponent, “l have friends who play there. They play together for more than one year and they improved a lot. I wish that it will be a nice match. I wish.”
Meanwhile, Lija Athletic have been focused on a counter-attacking stance in their opening three matches. Jethron Azzopardi suggested that this will be a match where the team will try to take more control in search of the three points, “We will try to play the game against Mtarfa, knowing also that they have signed some new players that might make the difference. It will be an interesting encounter to watch.”
The two teams will be playing the encounter at the Charles Abela Stadium, since the initially planned venue, the Victor Tedesco Stadium, is still undergoing works related to the lighting. Kick-off will be at 20:30.
Lead Images: Elise Bajada
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