Malta aiming for positive start to Nations League campaign with Moldova encounter

The Malta National Team is looking to get its UEFA Nations League campaign off to a good start on Saturday, with the team facing off against Moldova at the Stadionul Zimbru, Chisinau (MDA) at 18:00.

This is the first of two away fixtures that the National Team has during this international window, with Malta also squaring off against Andorra next week.

Coach Michele Marcolini will have to go into these games without captain Steve Borg and Enrico Pepe, two stalwarts at the heart of the defence, with them both missing out due to injury.

As a result, in his recently-named 26-man squad, Marcolini called up some new faces to the final squad, including the likes of Jake Vassallo and Mattias Ellul.

A number of other players are also making their return to the squad after being ruled out from last June's friendlies. During those games, Malta suffered a disappointing defeat against a strong Czechia side, before producing a more spirited display against Greece.

Malta is in Group D2 of this year's Nations League, which is the fourth edition of the competition. The National Team has come close to promotion on a number of occasions, yet has so far failed to fulfil this achievement.

Both the match against Moldova and the one against Andorra will be aired live on TVMSport+.