Farrugia calls for ‘extra effort’ in tough Spain clash

Malta coach Ray Farrugia emphasised the importance for the national team to stay compact and alert throughout their EURO 2020 qualifier against Spain at the Ramon de Carranza Stadium in Cadiz on Friday (kick-off 20.45). This match promises to be a very challenging encounter for Malta who are facing one of the strongest teams in world football with Spain having already secured their place at the EURO 2020 final tournament. “We know we’re playing against one of the top teams in the world, if not the best, but we’re looking forward to the game,” Farrugia said at the pre-match press conference. “We need to be very compact and well-prepared for this game.” The Spain encounter will be followed by the final qualifier at home to Norway on Monday. “At the moment we’re only concentrating on Spain and it’s imperative for us to do that to make sure that we go into this match in the right frame of mind,” Farrugia stressed. “We’re here to play Spain and after this game is over, we will start thinking about Norway.” Spain have dominated possession in the majority of the matches they have played in this EURO 2020 qualifying campaign and Farrugia expects them to do the same on Friday. “If you look at the statistics of the matches played by Spain in this competition, they have always dominated possession,” Farrugia said. “When they played Sweden away recently, Spain produced around 200 passes in the opening stages of the game and that tells you how good they are at keeping possession. “We know that this is Spain’s strong point and this game will be no different. “We need to put in an extra effort and stay alert and focused all the time.” DETERMINED AGIUSDefender Andrei Agius is aware of the scale of the task awaiting Malta in Cadiz but he is going into the match with a positive attitude. “We are more than aware of the challenge we have tomorrow as Spain are one of the best teams as everybody knows,” the Hibernians defender said.  “For us, it’s another game, one in which we will be giving our utmost and try to achieve something out of it as crazy as this might sound. “We have an objective and we will do our best to reach at the end of the group stage.”