“Like money, football never dies”. The staff and directors of the teams, in addition to the media staff, didn’t stop working day in day out, and even the players do not have long vacations. The leagues finish in May, and as soon as it appears the first sun of July, the UEFA competitions take place with the first preliminary rounds which include the Maltese clubs. This year, the participating clubs are Sliema Wanderers, Hibernians and Birkirkara in the Europa League, while Valletta will compete in the Champions League.
Sliema Wanderers were the first Maltese team in action in these preliminary rounds. They hosted the glorious team from Hungary, Ferencvaros FC, in a match which ended in a 1-1 draw. Against all odds, Sliema dominated the match where they even missed penalty early in the match, and later on they scored a marvellous goal in which Stanley Ohawuci dribbled past 4 players before making the score 1-0. In the final minutes of the match, Sliema had almost gone in front again when Andrea Scozzesse hit the woodwork. It was just because of a mistake from the goalkeeper that Sliema suffered the equaliser, because they outclassed the opponents throughout the match. The attendance was not an enthusiastic one, with only around 200 fans attending the match. One should appreciate the efforts that these players have done, considering that the league has finished just 2 months ago and now they are already playing in the highest levels and producing a brave performance. Sliema could be able to make it to the next stage since they have strengthened the squad by foreign players and by the Maltese International captain, Michael Mifsud, despite some critics and scepticism which rose regarding this transfer. Sliema will return in action for the second leg, on the 10th July in Hungary.
Hibernians was the other team to have played the first leg at home, when they hosted the Slovakian team of Spartak Trnava in a repeat of the 1970 qualifiers where both these teams had met each other. This match was highly controversial, when after 10 minutes of play, Hibernians were already down one man because of a send off, and later on fans showed their anger towards their coach due to some controversial decisions he took throughout the match. Hibernians showed a courageous performance after being 0-3 down already at halftime. As soon as the second half started, Hibernians fought back and reduced the score for 2-3, but in the final minutes the suffered the fourth goal which condemned them to a 2-4 loss. Once again there was a lack of attendance, there were no more than 200 persons in the stands. One should admire the fact that despite this match was a European qualifier and having financial troubles, the coach utilized players born between 1994-1996, among them, Joseph Mbong (making his debut) and Jurgen Degabriele (already made his debut last season). Hopefully, Hibernians will produce a good performance in order to keep their hopes alive, when they face the return leg on the 10th of July in Slovakia.
The last team in action was Birkirkara FC, who had a difficult match away from home in Hungary against Diosgyor FC. As expected, Birkirkara proved to be well equipped and will return Malta with a positive result, where despite losing by a score of 2-1, one has to say that they played the entire 2nd half with 10 players and suffered the 2-1 just in the final instants of the match. Despite playing away in a stadium which was fully packed with home fans, Birkirkara handled the pressure well and showed a great performance, where amongst others stood out the performance of the U/21 Maltese captain, Zach Muscat where he even hit the post in the early minutes of the match. The 2nd leg is scheduled on the 10th of July and hopefully Birkirkara can produce another courageous performance in order to advance to the next round.
Despite now being in the peak of summer, the preparations of these clubs have not stopped and with the utmost seriousness and dedication they are working for their upcoming matches. As a fan of Maltese football, I would like to wish them every success, because by their successful results they can create enthusiasm among the Maltese fans. Forza Malta!