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Malta to host Scotland as 2018 FIFA World Cup trail starts

Published: 03-08-2016 11:55
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Matches between Malta and any of the British home countries are always an attraction considering the close ties between Maltese and British soccer.  Malta’s opening fixture, which sees our senior representative team hosting Scotland on the 4th of September in Group F of the FIFA World Cup Russia 2016, falls into this category.   Scotland may not have the following in our country which England has but several units in their squad are quite familiar as they form part of English Premier League teams which the Maltese can watch regularly on television. The attraction goes further than that when taking into account Malta’s chances of obtaining a satisfactory result against the Scots who are currently having a lean spell in international football given their recent performances. On the other hand, Malta’s coach Pietro Ghedin, may also be wary of this fact since Scotland will be out to obtain a flying start in the group matches in their bid to give themselves hope of eventual qualification to the finals. The Italian will certainly have worked on his players’ physical and technical condition in this early part of the season and made provision for putting up the best possible opposition to the visitors. A mixture of caution and enterprise would be the right balance to providing the Scots with a stern test. The Maltese can surely be up to it, especially with solid backing from the stands and terraces. There is every reason to believe that if the hosts pull up their socks they can give the home crowd something to cheer about. The match will be played on Sunday 4th September 2016 and kicks off at 20.45hrs. and tickets will go on sale today.. For more information on ticket sales CLICK HERE Past results between the two countries: 22 March 1988         Malta 1 Scotland 1 (F)29 May 1990             Malta 1 Scotland 2 (F)17 Feb 1993              Scotland 3 Malta 0 (WC)17 Nov 1993             Malta 0 Scotland 2 (WC)01 Jan 1997               Malta 2 Scotland 3 (F)