Watch: Malta women’s coach Gatt sees further progress for record-breaking team

The Malta women’s coach Mark Gatt feels that the record-breaking UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 qualification campaign is just a stepping stone for further milestones for this group of players.

Gatt took part in an in-depth interview on the second episode of Sports Talk, a new production of the Times of Malta Sports Desk, during which he opened up on the progress of the women’s game in Malta.

“This success reflects the hard work done by the entire women’s department and technical staff in recent years,” Gatt explained to Sports Talk.

“Making such progress was in our vision of work and having actually managed to reach our objectives, it fills us with pride and determination to work even harder.

At the same time, I believe that this team has room for improvement and I think the upcoming two years will be the defining moment for this group of players.”

Coach Gatt underlined the team’s compactness, even during the tough defeats such as against Denmark and Italy where he heaped praise on girls’ ability to remain motivated and not get disheartened by such scorelines.

At the same time, the Malta coach pointed out how the positive performances against Italy and Israel at home enabled the team to gain more self-belief and propel themselves into another dimension.

“The Italy and Israel games that we played on home soil were crucial to our progress because they enabled us to gain more experience and build on such performances,” Gatt said.

“Then, Haley Bugeja became eligible for us in the second part of these qualifications and her impact was enormous on our progress.

However, I have to underline that this has been a team effort and gradually, the team became more self-aware of its abilities.”