MALTA DRAWN AGAINST STRONG OPPOSITION IN WORLD CUP GROUP

When the European participants were drawn in the Women’s 2014 World Cup qualifying groups in Nyon today,Tuesday, Malta came up against tough opposition. As one of the teams with the lowest average of coefficients in pot F we were paired in Group C with Denmark and Iceland two traditionally strong countries, with the other teams being Serbia, Switzerland and Israel.   For the northern countries Malta and Israel will be welcome places to visit in terms of warm and bright weather. The UEFA CEO, Gianni Infantino pointed this out casually when saying ‘Malta and Israel - Sunshine guaranteed.’ On his part Malta coach Pierre Brincat was under no illusion regarding the tough customers in our group. ‘This is a tough group for us, with two Nordic teams both of whom participating in the Euro Finals in July. Serbia are another tough team and their coefficient is high compared to the average in pot D.’ ‘We once drew against Switzerland here in Malta but now they have a big advantage as they exported a lot of players to the German league and so they moved ahead in female football. As for Israel they are a new team for us but we won against them with our Under 16’s recently in Greece.’ ‘Nevertheless, we will prepare and do our best when facing these teams and we will never give up,’ Brincat ended by saying.