Having under our belt a prestigious away victory against Armenia last June which kick-started our points figures from the nil mark, Malta will be looking to keep up the positive momentum when they face the Danes and the Bulgarians in what should again be two stiff tests.

The squad under the charge of coach Pietro Ghedin and his technical team has been preparing for some time now in view of these two encounters. These work-outs are being stepped up to reach a peak in the coming weeks and especially in the wake of the start of the top league programme in August.

More physical preparation will be followed by technical sessions, with the choice of the preliminary squad to be made a few weeks before the team is due to play its matches.

As already pointed out, the Maltese will have to be on their best behaviour to fend off the challenge of two of the most articulate teams in Europe, who possess some of the best talent in circulation.

Early season inertia will have to be shaken off if the team wants to uphold their recently-acquired pride after their second ever success in a world-cup qualifier.

Records of previous matches against the two countries show that we obtained a 3-0 victory against a Denmark XI in an unofficial friendly match in1958 and two draws against Bulgaria a 1982 friendly and a 2004 World Cup Qualifier.

As a warm-up to these two competitive matches Malta will be heading to Azerbaijan to play a friendly match on the 14^th August. National coach Pietro Ghedin has called up a sizeable group of home-based players to start training as from Monday and Tuesday.

Selection of home based players as at 27 July 2013: