Serie A players Skriniar, Lobotka named in Slovakia squad for Malta qualifier

Slovakia will be wrapping up their 2022 World Cup qualifications with an away game against Malta at the National Stadium in Ta’ Qali, this Sunday.

With two games left, Slovakia’s hopes of making it to Qatar 2022 have all but vanished as they sit third on 10 points, seven behind second-place Croatia.

On Thursday, Slovakia will host Slovenia with whom they share third place before travelling to Malta.

For these two games, Slovakia coach Stefan Tarkovic called up 24 players including Serie A players Milan Skriniar of Inter and Napoli’s Slovan Lobotka.

Skriniar was on the scoresheet for Slovakia when they faced Malta back in March. On that night in Trnava, Malta had opened a two-goal lead in the first half thanks to Luke Gambin and Alexander Satariano.

However, goals from Skriniar and David Strelech rescued Slovakia a point against Devis Mangia’s side.

Lobotka, on his part, is struggling to make his breakthrough into Napoli’s starting formation after playing just three games so far under Luciano Spalletti.

Captain Marek Hamsik is also part of the Slovakian team. At age 34, the former Napoli captain is currently plying his trade at Trabzonspor, leaders of the Turkish league. So far in Turkey, Hamsik has played 11 games while registering 1 goal and 4 assists.

Newcastle United’s goalkeeper Martin Dubravka is also returning to the squad after being sidelined with an injury. In fact, he is yet to make his Premier League debut this season after being on the bench in the last two games against Chelsea and Slovakia.

SQUAD

GOALKEEPERS:
Marek Rodak (Fulham, England); Dusan Kuciak (Lechia Gdansk, Poland); Martin Dubravka (Newcastle, England).

DEFENDERS:
Peter Pekarik (Hertha Berlin, Germany); Martin Koscelnik (Slovan Liberec, Czech Republic); Martin Valjent (Mallorca, Spain); Vernon de Marco (SK Slovan); Lubomir Satka (Lech Poznan, Poland); Milan Skriniar (Inter, Italy); David Hancko (Slavia Prague, Czech Republic); Jakub Holubek (Piast Gliwice, Poland).

MIDFIELDERS:
Marek Hamsik (Trabzonspor, Turkey); Matus Bero (Vitesse, Netherlands); Ondrej Duda (Koln, Germany); Stanislav Lobotka (Napoli, Italy); Albert Rusnak (Real Salt Lake, USA); Jakub Hromada (Slavia Prague, Czech Republic).

FORWARDS:
Robert Bozenik (Fortuna Dusseldorf); David Strelec (Spezia, Italy); Ladislav Almasi (Banik Ostrava, Czech Republic); Robert Mak (Ferencvaros, Hungary); Erik Jirka (Real Oviedo, Spain); Lukas Haraslin (Sparta Prague, Czech Republic); Tomas Suslov (Groningen, Netherlands).