Ħamrun Spartans coach Giacomo Modica is urging his players to be more aggressive and clinical in front of goal as the Malta champions bid to make the impossible and overturn a two-goal deficit at the expense of Lithuanian side FK Zalgiris.
A 2-0 defeat in last week’s opening leg in Lithuania, has left the Spartans with a mountain climb as they need to produce a perfect performance to advance to the second qualifying round of the Champions League at the Centenary Stadium on Tuesday evening (kick-off: 7pm).
The Italian coach told the media that he was in general happy with the approach of the players during last week’s first leg and said that his team were made to pay for errors in key areas of the pitch.
“I don’t have much to criticise my team’s approach last week,” said Modica.
“We committed a mistake on the first goal where we failed to read well our opponents’ intention from a set-piece situation while the second goal could have also been avoided.
“But all in all, there was a good approach from the players, they battled hard in all areas of the pitch and we managed to create a lot of scoring chances.
“The main problem was that we failed to take the chances that came our way and in the end, we paid dearly for that at this level.
“Zalgiris had four opportunities and scored twice while we had five chances but failed to convert any of them. When you play in such an important competition, away from home, you can’t miss os many chances as in football, the team that commits the least mistakes, wins.”
Modica said that his team is aware that they need to attack against Zalgiris to try and overturn last week’s result. However, he refused to be drawn in the conversation of what playing module the team will adopt.
“For me tactical modules are just numbers,” Modica said.
“At the end of the day, what is important is how you occupy the spaces on the pitch. What I want from my players is that they attack the spaces, put pressure on their opponents to win possession back and convert their scoring chances.
“I expect the players to be very aggressive right from the start and try and score an early goal which could make a lot of difference to the tie.”
Patient approach
FK Zalgiris will be feeling confident of heading into the second leg with a two-goal advantage and Modica is expecting the Lithuanian side to adopt a patient approach.
“I don’t expect FK Zalgiris to come out and attack,” the Ħamrun coach said.
“I am sure they will be patient and try and catch us with quick transitions. I am sure that we will be the ones who will dictate the tempo of the game and that is why we need to be perfect in all areas of the pitch.”
On his part, Joseph Mbong, the Ħamrun Spartans winger, said that the team was still feeling confident ahead of today’s match despite the two-goal deficit.
“To be honest, we are confident in our ability,” Mbong said.
“There is a lot of quality in all areas of the pitch and we know what we have to do. Added to that, there are many players in our squad who were in a similar situation in the past so they have first-hand experience to deal with such situations.
“There is no doubt that we are aware that we could have done much more in the first leg. But that is all in the past now. We have a lot of belief in ourselves that we can go out and turn this tie around, and if needed, even force extra-time and penalties.”
Mbong said that the squad may have only been together for just two or three weeks but the early signs look already promising.
“The reality is that this squad have been training together for not more than three weeks, with many players coming in midway through the pre-season,” Mbong said.
“Inevitably, that made it difficult for the team to gel well together. However, last week’s performance was very encouraging as we created a lot of scoring chances and maybe we were not ruthless enough in front of the goal.
“We have great respect for our opponents as they are a valid team but we have clear task on our hands and we need to focus on ourselves and try and create history for our club.”
