Malta deserved to lose against Moldova, says coach Marcolini

Michele Marcolini admitted that Malta deserved to lose Saturday’s UEFA Nations League clash against Moldova and urged his players to quickly put behind them their opaque showing in Chisinau and revive their fortunes in League D with victory over Andorra tomorrow.

The national team were well below their best on Saturday as they struggled to make any impact with the ball while defensive mistakes saw them concede two first-half goals that put Moldova well on their way to a crucial victory.

While it’s still early days in the Nations League campaign, Malta’s prospect of fulfilling their goal of winning promotion to League C is already in jeopardy as the national team need to not only beat Andorra tomorrow, but must overcome the Moldovans by three clear goals in the return fixture on October 13 at the National Stadium.

Marcolini said the team should take full responsibility of the defeat on Saturday and lamented the high percentage of technical mistakes committed by the players behind this upset.

“We deserved to lose,” Marcolini said.

“I don’t like to hide myself. Moldova played much better than us. The differences were very evident, they were faster, stronger and with a different quality of passes.

“They arrived often first on the ball, and especially in the first half we did an amazing percentage of technical mistakes.

“The worst part is that unfortunately we handed them the chance to score with a lot of mistakes.

“In the second half, we continued to commit silly mistakes and give the ball away in crucial areas of the pitch. We gave Moldova a few presents to continue to score goals, as happened when they hit the post.

“We did manage to start shooting at goal but still we didn’t manage to create enough danger to their goal.”

On Saturday, Marcolini was without some key personnel as defenders Steve Borg and Enrico Pepe failed to make the trip to Moldova due to injury while influential midfielder Teddy Teuma could only be used as a late second-half substitute after picking up a knock with his Ligue 1 club Stade Reims.

The Malta coach admitted that the loss of Teuma had a major impact on the team and is keeping his fingers crossed that the former Royal Saint Gilloise player is able to start the clash in Andorra.

“Teddy is our best player, a point of reference for his team-mates,” Marcolini said.

“Missing a player like Teddy is a big problem for us. We tried to manage his recovery as best as possible.

“His attitude is amazing and he is willing to help the team even if he is recovering from an injury and that is remarkable and shows his commitment towards the team.

“We have to see how he will react after the minutes he played today. He is feeling better day by day and we will decide together what should be the best option for the team and for him.”

Marcolini said it was critical that the national team players put behind them their poor showing in Chisinau and fully focus on their next assignment, a clash against Andorra in La Vella, where the team has no other option but to take all three points.

“We cannot afford to remain thinking back on what happened against Moldova,” Marcolini said.

“We have to turn the page and start focusing on the match against Andorra.

“We don’t have enough time. We will analyse the match but only focus on how we can improve for the next match.

“We will find a team with different characteristics, but like Moldova, we are definitely very aggressive and determined. We cannot hope for a good result if we don’t play with grit and determination. We have the quality to revive our hopes in the group but we need to show more ambition.”