Ħamrun Spartans face Marsaxlokk, Floriana take on Sliema as Summer Cup kicks off

Ħamrun Spartans, Marsaxlokk, Sliema Wanderers and Floriana, the four teams that represented Malta in the UEFA club competitions, will have the opportunity to continue fine-tuning their squad ahead of the start of the 360Sports Premier League when they will feature in the pre-season’s Summer Cup tournament.

The tournament will get underway on Tuesday evening when Ħamrun Spartans face Marsaxlokk in the opening semi-final while on Wednesday Sliema Wanderers will face Floriana.

Both matches will be held at the Centenary Stadium and will kick off at 7.30pm.

The winners of the two semi-finals will face off in Saturday’s final at the National Stadium.

Ryan Scicluna, the Marsaxlokk captain, said that this tournament will help his team to finalise their preparations before the start of the league championship.

“After our European participation, this tournament will be a good opportunity for us to understand our condition before the start of the league,” Scicluna said.

“Our preparation before our UEFA Conference League tie was very good as we had the opportunity to play against superior opponents from Romania and Serbia. These matches helped us to increase our match intensity and that helped us to provide a stern challenge to Albania’s FK Partizani.

“Now we are looking forward to our league campaign and the match against Ħamrun will be a great indicator of where we are.

“We are not hiding behind our ambitions as this year we have strengthened our squad and we will try to do better than last season, when we finished in fourth place.”

Joseph Mbong, the Ħamrun Spartans winger, admitted that his team are still trying to find their feet after a disappointing European campaign which saw them knocked out by Gibraltar’s Lincoln Red Imps in the Champions League and then FC Ballkani in the Conference League.

“These matches will be a great opportunity for us to try out some tactical changes before we start our title defence,” Mbong said.

“This season it’s going to be a tight title race with many teams of more of the same level. We are coming from a disappointing European experience where we failed to progress in the Champions League against a team, we felt we should have beaten.

“Now we are looking forward to the league championship where our goal is to try and winning it once more.

“This year we have several new foreign players who are still trying to finding their feet so the team needs time to gel well.

“I am expecting a very strong challenge as apart from the teams who played in Europe there are others, like Birkirkara, who may well be in the fight.

“But we will take it one match at a time and try the best that we can and hopefully we can put ourselves with another chance in the Champions League.”

Edmund Agius, the Sliema Wanderers captain, said that the Wanderers are looking to arrive for the league campaign in the best possible condition and the Summer Cup will be a perfect test.

“This is another good opportunity for us to continue our preparations for the new season,” Agius said.

“For us at Sliema Wanderers we always thrive to improve but our main goal is to try and build on all the good things we achieved in the last two seasons.

“We don’t have a pre-set goal but our objective is to reach a higher level of performance.

“Last season, nobody expected us that in our first season back into the top flight we would finish third in the league and win the FA Trophy. This year, we need to continue to build on all the positives we achieved last term.”

Jake Grech, the Floriana midfielder, said that the Greens had a positive showing in Europe and are hopeful they can enjoy a strong campaign, and challenge for silverware.

“This tournament is a great test to see where we are both from a physical as well as a mental point of view,” the former Balzan player said.

“It’s particularly good for us as we have a new coach and need more time to adhere to his tactical philosophy.

“We are coming from a very positive campaign in Europe where we deservedly knocked out San Marino’s Tre Penne and gave a good showing in the home leg against Vitoria.

“Now we are looking forward to the new season.

“We have a very good squad, but that means nothing if we don’t prove our strength on the field of play.”