De Leo rues missed chances as Malta lose Teuma for second leg in Luxembourg

Second-half goals from Vincent Thill and Mathias Olesen put Luxembourg firmly in charge to preserve their place in the League C ahead of the second leg at the Stade de Luxembourg on Tuesday.

The loss of influential midfielder Teddy Teuma did not help Malta’s aspirations of gaining a positive result on Thursday, but a more clinical Luxembourg side ultimately punished the team’s failure to take the chances that came their way.

Speaking during the post-match press conference, De Leo admitted that Teuma’s withdrawal hit the team hard, but he believes that small details ultimately cost Malta from securing a positive result ahead of next week’s second leg.

“The loss of Teddy Teuma to injury has certainly hampered us, particularly in the final 30 metres of the pitch,” the Malta national teams’ head coach said.

“But all in all, I have to admit that we had something missing in our play. I think that the main difference between the two teams were minor details, and when you’re playing at this level, they end up being decisive.

“The team created a lot of scoring chances but we simply failed to put the ball into the net, and we paid dearly for that. On the other hand, Luxembourg enjoyed a lot of possession with the ball and punished us for two small mistakes in defence.

“In my mind, we should not have conceded both goals, but there is nothing we can do now; we must see how we can fight back in the second leg in Luxembourg next week.”

Despite the defeat, the Malta coach still tried to remain positive and said that Malta showed that they are capable of competing against teams that are playing in League C.

“The result may not have been the one we wanted, but there is no doubt in my mind that the team has shown that we are capable of competing in League C,” De Leo said.

“In the first half, we were a bit tense in how we approached our opponents, and then we conceded two soft goals. Our focus now is to find a way to try to overturn the tie in our favour.

“There were several situations where we could have took better advantage from them and I’m sure had we done that, the game could have taken a different dimension.

“Now, we have a couple of days to work on our game and try to iron out the mistakes we committed against Luxembourg so we can perform much better next week.

“Luxembourg have shown today that they are a very good side. They have several players who play at a very high level. Some of them are regulars in the UEFA Champions League, and that is a clear indicator of their quality.

“But as I already said, there was one major difference between the two teams: Luxembourg took both chances that came their way and we didn’t; it’s as simple as that.”

Thursday’s result has certainly left Malta with a mountain to climb, as they need to at least secure a two-goal advantage to level the tie and keep alive their hopes of promotion. De Leo, however, is refusing to throw in the towel just yet.

“Our approach for the second leg will not change,” he said.

“We will try to go there with an offensive approach to try and re-open the game. We have a responsibility not just for us but for all the Maltese football community to give everything to try and turn things around.

“Then, if that will not be enough, we would at least have the peace of mind that we have done what we could.

“In the past 12 months, the Maltese national team has managed to play some excellent football against teams of a much higher ranking, and we also managed to get positive results, so I don’t see why we cannot do that next week too.”

Teuma out

Teddy Teuma has been ruled out of Tuesday’s second leg against Luxembourg.

Malta FA vice-president Matthew Paris confirmed reports that the Standard Liege midfielder had suffered a calf injury on Thursday and will not make the trip to Luxembourg.

Teuma suffered a tear in his calf during Thursday’s 2-0 defeat and is expected to be ruled out for a number of weeks.