Focus on European football as Valletta host Ferencvaros

Maltese teams Valletta and Gżira United will have home advantage when they face Hungarian side Ferencvaros and FK Ventspils, of Latvia, respectively in the UEFA club competitions this week. On Tuesday at the Centenary Stadium (8pm), Valletta will be looking to overcome a two-goal deficit after going down 3-1 to Ferencvaros in the first leg of their Champions League second qualifying round match, played at the Groupama Aréna last week. A late goal from Yuri Messias, who was making his debut for Valletta, kept the Maltese champions’ hopes alive in this second qualifying round match, albeit Valletta clearly face a tall order to bounce back against the Hungarian champions. The winner of the Valletta-Ferencvaros tie will meet either Saburtalo of Georgia or GNK Dinamo Zagreb, of Croatia, in the third qualifying round of the Champions League. Dinamo Zagreb won the first leg, away, 2-0. On the other hand, the losing team will move to the Europa League third qualifying round where a match against the winner of the game between FC Santa Coloma (Andorra) and Astana (Kazakhstan) awaits. Santa Coloma and Astana drew 0-0 in the first leg, played in Andorra. On Thursday, Gżira United have it all to do as they face FK Ventspils who won the first-leg match 4-0 last week. Although the Maroons have a very difficult task at the Centenary Stadium (8pm), they can take heart from their 3-1 comeback win away to Croatian side Hajduk Split in the previous round. The winner of the Gżira/Ventspils match will face either Jeunesse Esch, of Luxembourg, or Portuguese side Vitória SC in the third qualifying round of the Europa League. Vitória SC take a 1-0 lead into Thursday’s home leg.