| Malta has never taken part in the final round of a World Cup or European Championship, and in the Nations League they have only recently started in the lowest possible league. However, the islanders have played three extremely successful friendlies since September 2022, which raises the question of whether we might not be offered a little surprise by the Knights of Malta right at the start of the Euro 2024 qualifiers. The 2-1 victory over Israel, a 2-2 draw against Greece and a narrow 0-1 defeat against Ireland must be recorded in the success category from the point of view of the football dwarf. The squad called up by Blagoja Milevski for Thursday consists almost entirely of players who make their money at European professional clubs. The quality of the squad would not impress either England or Italy, but the Maltese must be respected. In contrast to Malta, the 65th in the world football rankings only recently took part in a European Championship finals, but North Macedonia only won two international matches against football dwarf Gibraltar since his sensational victory over Italy in March 2022. However in Skopje, the hosts should be highly motivated to win the first match in the group. |
