Kosovo vs Malta

At home in the Fadil Vokrri Stadium, a building built before either of these countries reached independence, Kosovo will face Malta in Pristina on October 11th. Coming into this match in good form (four wins and one draw out of their last five), manager Bernard Challandes and the Kosovo team have every reason to expect a result from this game. While the children of many Kosovar-Albanian refugees have chosen to represent the countries that took their families in, notably Xherdan Shaqiri and Granit Xhaka who represent Switzerland, Kosovo have a very talented and young squad in comparison to much of league D and I would be surprised if they stay in League D for long.

Malta, on the other hand, have very little reason for optimism. Native Maltese manager Ray Farrugia has been in charge of the “Knights of Malta” since May 2017 and is still looking for a win, having achieved 2 draws and 2 losses in Fagguria’s time in charge. Fagguria’s job will be made no easier by Kosovo’s glut of talent in comparison to Malta’s modest and aging squad. While Kosovo will bring players from clubs like Werder Bremen, Dinamo Zagreb and Swansea City, Malta’s team features only one player who does not ply his trade on the island, attacker Andre Schrembi who plays for Apollon Limassol in the fellow island nation of Cyprus.

Key Players for Kosovo:

Arber Zeneli, Elba Rashini

Kosovo has three players tied for their all time time top scorer, all at three goals, and two of them look set to join the Kosovo team for this break. Born in Sweden to Albanian parents, 23 year old Arber(accent) Zeneli represented Sweden all the way up to the U-21 level before switching to Kosovo in 2016. The Heerenveen midfielder has scored an impressive 3 goals in his 11 caps for the disputed nation state, and will hope to take his goal tally to 4 this time out to claim sole status as Kosovo’s top ever scorer. His rival for that title in this camp will be 25 year old Elba Rashini of Odd in Norway. Similarly to Zeneli, Rashini was born and Norway and represented Norway on every youth level, but the ethnically Kosovar striker made the switch to Kosovo for his senior international career. While two years older, he has reached 3 goals in only 5 caps and looks to be a promising striker for the Balkan nation in this League D campaign.

Key Players for Malta:

Michael Mifsud

Unlike Kosovo who played their first Fifa official game in 2016, Malta has been playing international football since 1957 and has some much more veteran players to show for it. While the most capped player on the Kosovo squad, captain and goalkeeper Samir Ujkani, sits at 21 caps, Maltese captain and all time top scorer Michael Mifsud boasts an incredible 132 appearances for the island nation. The 37 year old striker has had a career that has taken him to Germany, Norway, England and Australia, but he is now back in Malta playing for Birkirkara F.C.. Mifsud will no doubt be hoping to use his glut of professional experience outside of Malta to lead the line on the 11th, as he is one of very few players in the squad to ever play somewhere that is not a small Mediterranean island.

Prediction:

Despite Maltas experienced squad, featuring not one but three 37 year olds, it is impossible to see past Kosovo on this one. The swaths of refugee talent making up the young Kosovo team, many of whom are playing in top divisions all around Europe, should easily be enough to see off the plucky island. I am predicting 3-0 to Kosovo, and we will see the first ever Kosovo player to achieve 4 goals for the national team.