Malta national team to discover League D Nations League opponents in Paris draw

2024/2025 edition will be fourth participation for Michele Marcolini’s selection

The 2024/2025 campaign of the UEFA Nations League will be launched on Thursday when the European football governing body will hold the draw for the fourth edition of this tournament.

Among the 54 member associations waiting to discover their group opponents will be Malta who will be one of the six teams forming the two three-team League D groups.

Malta – ranked 172 in the FIFA list – will be picked from Pot 2 which includes Andorra (164th), San Marino (210th) and Liechtenstein (203rd).

Pot 1 is formed by Moldova (155th) and Lithuania/Gibraltar with these two teams – Lithuania ranked 138th and Gibraltar ranked 201st – to cross swords in March play-offs. The loser will remain in League D.

Each team will play four matches in their group, one home and one away against the other two nations in the section.

The two group winners in League D are automatically promoted to League C.

There will be play-offs between the two best-ranked fourth-placed teams from League C and the two runners-up from League D.

The upcoming edition will kick off between September 7 and 10 with the opening couple of Matchdays as Malta will be looking to finally reach the elusive promotion to League C.

The Maltese side came agonizingly close to climbing into the third-tier in the last two editions but on both occasions failed at the last hurdle.

In the previous campaign, Malta fell to defeat against Estonia in Tallinn with the Baltic side clinching promotion while before that, the Maltese drew with the Faroe Islands in Ta’ Qali as promotion went in the direction of the Nordic side.

The 2018-19 edition was Malta’s first participation in the Nations League, picking up just three points in a four-team group that included Kosovo, Azerbaijan, and the Faroe Islands.