Malta

Malta 1994-96 Home, matchworn v Norway
Malta 2007-09 Home, matchworn Shaun Bajada v Portugal

90’s Lotto were a mixture of the slightly dull and the spectacular. This Maltese shirt edges more towards the former, though there’s enough to keep the eye on it. A nice, messy pattern across it prevents it from being a uniform colour, though it was a template so there’s no special meaning attached. They do manage the George Cross on each shoulder for a bit of Maltese flavour but otherwise not a lot to this to talk about.

Used across Euro 1996 qualifiers, Malta suffered somewhat. Czechia, Norway and the Netherlands made for a formidable top 3 of the group, though they did take a 0-0 home draw against the Czechs. They would have expected a little more against Belarus and Luxembourg, but despite a 1-1 away draw in Belarus (one of only 2 goals they scored all campaign) they narrowly lost the other 3 matches. 2 goals scored and 2 points from the whole affair left them far adrift at the foot of the group.

Aside from an odd collar and some white trim around the shirt, there’s not too much here, is there? Wrong, because the George Cross stands proudly in the lower section of the shirt. Off centre and drawing the eye, I can’t explain why it works for me, but it really does. Yeah, we’ve got the Diadora logo on the sleeves as well, but the focus is the cross and that’s good. I’m totally unashamed of loving this shirt for reasons I can’t quite articulate.

2010 qualifiers did not go well at all. The managed close 1-0 losses at home to Sweden and Hungary, with a 0-0 home draw to Albania providing a useful point. However, they lost every other match by at least 3 goals, including home and away to Denmark and Portugal, and failed to score a single goal all campaign. The 3^rd worst goal difference in Europe and long distant of their group compatriots, it was one to forget for the Maltese.

For all the criticism that I’d laid on them, these sort of results are not unusual for the Maltese. They have never registered more than 5 points in a single qualifying campaign and typically concede an average of 2-3 per match in doing so. They have, at times, proven to be more dangerous than expected, with several narrow results against very big teams, but converting narrow losses into points has proven tricky so far. In the Nations League they remain competitive in League D, but are yet to gain promotion, despite some close matchups.

After a slow start, their women’s team proved keen on improvement, taking part in multiple friendly tournaments and driving improvement across the board. They struggled for points at first, but the preliminary qualifying stage brought them several strong results and they’re now comfortable in beating the bottom seeds in a group. The inaugural women’s Nations League may have put them in League C, but they comfortably won their group and will taste League B action next time around. The men’s youth teams have a lot of similarities with the senior side, typically staying towards the bottom of UEFA but with a little more volatility. None of them have qualified for a Euros except for the U17s hosting the 2014 Euros where they lost all 3 of their matches. They’ve been to the Elite round before, but that’s about all that can be said. Entrance into women’s youth qualifiers has been spotty, typically sending either the U19s or the U17s. They’ve never qualified for nor hosted a Euros and positive results have generally been rare, coming against the bottom ranked teams only.

Only recently active in futsal, Malta came in from 2006 onwards, They’re yet to win a qualifier and only have 2 draws to their name so far. Results have not been positive. They did try for the latest U19 futsal Euro, registering a win and draw in qualification, so there are green shoots coming. They’ve stayed away from women’s futsal. Beach soccer only started for them very recently, with an appearance at the 2015 Mediterranean Games only followed up in 2022 in the Euro Beach Soccer League. They have thus far failed to garner any points from 2 League B EBSL seasons and 1 set of World Cup qualifiers, but several matches have been close and it may well come soon.

With some more positivity in the team, Malta were hoping to act as kingmakers in their 2022 qualification group. They took 4 points off Cyprus with a dominant 3-0 home win (and a 2-2 away draw), adding a 2-2 away draw in Slovakia to their points total. However, a more attacking brand of football led to some brutal results in other matches, with home and away losses to Slovenia, Russia and Croatia. They finished bottom on goal difference alone, however, so it ended as a reasonable campaign.