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Friday’s meeting at Wembley for the penultimate fixture of this Euro 2024 Qualifier campaign will mark just the seventh meeting between England and Malta since 1971. England have seen victory on all occasions and will be hopeful of extending that record to bring their strong qualifying performances to a fitting close.
Five of these historic meetings have taken place during qualification stages for major international tournaments with only one international friendly between them back in 2000. England completed the double over Malta in both the UEFA Euro 1972 Qualifiers and 2018 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers with a third double victory for the Three Lions on the cards for Friday.
Malta have never made an appearance at a major international tournament and this hunt is set to be extended. Malta have had a very disappointing qualifying period, suffering seven defeats and only scoring two goals. Their possibility of qualifying ended fairly early because of the other results in Group F but they will be keen to leave it all out on the pitch during their last outing in this qualifying campaign.
England have kept five clean sheets historically versus Friday’s visitors, with Malta’s only goal coming in their 2-1 defeat in 2000 during their international friendly. This did, however, come in the form of a Richard Wright own goal with Emile Heskey sealing the win for Kevin Keagan’s side. A 30-year-old Gareth Southgate also starred in this victory after being brought off the bench, with many other English footballing legends completing the side.
Wembley will host this fixture for only the third time in seven match-ups and with Gareth Southgate’s side currently on a remarkable 13-game winning streak in Euro qualifiers at home, with ten clean sheets, it would seem that Malta will face their most difficult England contest yet. With England’s qualification already certified, they’ll be looking to seal the top spot in the group with a convincing win here.
What clues will we find for some interesting betting and player prop angles?
3️⃣ The Last Three: England v Malta
Malta 0-4 England, Date: 16th June 2023: Trent Alexander-Arnold glistens in dominant win
Matchday three of the Euro 2024 Qualifiers saw England maintain their perfect start to their campaign journey with a 4-0 victory over Malta. The glories were shared amongst the Three Lions starters with Trent Alexander-Arnold shining in that midfielder role, which brought pre-match controversy after his difficulties at Liverpool in the months prior.
Off the back of another failed venture to leave the doldrums of League D in the UEFA Nations League behind, Malta’s bid to qualify for a maiden major tournament started according to the script, with Michele Marcolini’s men quickly assuming their position at the bottom of the section, which saw no progress after the final whistle in this matchup.
Trent Alexander-Arnold helped open the scoring early on in the eighth minute after an inch-perfect cross-field pass to Bukayo Saka, who’s low-driven cross was turned into the net by the Malta defence. Clear-cut chances seemingly alluded the Three Lions until the Liverpool man produced another moment of individual brilliance to double England’s lead, picking up a loose ball before rifling it into the top left corner, seemingly putting the game beyond the reach of the hosts.
Alexander-Arnold has continued his shooting form for Liverpool this season, averaging 1.64 shots on goal per 90 so we could expect him to be a goal threat in Friday’s matchup.
After becoming England’s all-time top goalscorer in the game before against Italy, Harry Kane stepped up to the plate once again to coolly slot home a penalty to make it 3-0, marking his 50th competitive strike for the Three Lions. Kane was unfortunate not to double his tally after his chipped effort narrowly trickled past the post around the hour mark. Considering his current exceptional form in the Bundesliga, scoring 17 goals in 11 games, the England skipper has a great chance to keep his momentum against a struggling Malta defence.
Malta were unable to register a single shot in their 4-0 defeat and struggled to piece together any decent attacking promise after only seeing 34% of the ball, but they certainly showed composure and patience despite the dominance. Malta registered ten fouls, one foul fewer than the victors, and picked up one yellow card – it would seem England’s high press was undone on a few occasions.
England are likely to see a slightly rotated side in this matchup on Friday, so perhaps some new faces and the want to make a key impression before the closing of the Euro 2024 qualifying tournaments could force some more lapses in judgement and committing fouls.
Malta 0-4 England, Date: 1st September 2017: Three Lions ease to victory on their travels
Flashing back to 2017, England were victorious once again with a 4-0 victory at the Ta`Qali National Stadium in the 2018 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers, a competition that would later see the Three Lions reach the semi-finals.
A squad composed of some iconic stars like Joe Hart, Ryan Bertrand and Dele Alli to name a few, seemingly struggled to break down the low block of Malta with the scoring eventually opening in the 53rd minute – a valiant defensive effort from the hosts.
The scoreline does undermine that statement, especially considering England scored three of their four goals in the final seven minutes of the game, a tough one to swallow for Malta. This match marked England’s first away win under Gareth Southgate, having failed to win any of their previous four outings with two draws and two losses.
Harry Kane inked his name on the scoresheet for the first time in a month after failing to score in any competition in August.
Kane netted two goals in his first outing against Malta – a scoring trend to keep an eye on for this week’s upcoming fixture – with Ryan Bertand and Danny Welbeck completing the scoreline. This totalled Kane’s 11th strike for the Three Lions in 20 appearances, an omen for what was to come.
Malta showed great strength and resilience to keep England’s quality at bay for just shy of an hour, but their limited attacking threat and difficulties in keeping longer spells of possession eventually led to their downfall. Malta later finished the group with zero points, scoring 3 and conceding 25, a tough campaign for sure.
Once again, England committed a single foul more than Malta in a game that saw no yellow cards. It would seem these recent affairs have been very disciplined, perhaps considering some under-total cards and England foul markets for Friday night, considering their tendency to slip up in their dominant possession game.
With the Malta defence showing very similar struggles in 2023 to their 2018 qualifiers storyline, any England starting XI variation could cause some serious trouble. A repeated lack of attacking threat from Malta could highlight an England win to nil to be of decent value.
England 2-0 Malta, Date: 8th October 2016: The Rise of Gareth Southgate
This matchup marked the first meeting between these two sides in 16 years, in an eagerly anticipated World Cup Qualifier. The match marked the start of Gareth Southgate’s four-match reign as interim manager for the England squad, which later earned him the permanent role after wins against Malta and Scotland, before drawing with Slovenia and Spain – the rest as they say, is history.
After facing a 5-1 battering at the hands of Scotland in the prior fixture, Malta came into this game likely with the goal of damage limitation rather than the hope of securing any points. Most of the pre-match talk centred around Sam Allardyce’s very abrupt and brief period as manager of the Three Lions, which put even more pressure on Gareth Southgate and his men to perform and deliver a result at Wembley.
Southgate’s squad selection controversies can be traced all the way back to this first game as he sparked questions by looking past teenager Marcus Rashford, who had been shining at Manchester United, and opted for Daniel Sturridge and Jesse Lingard – how far the England attack has come in recent years…
This match was a very one-sided affair, seeing England dominate 80% of the ball whilst registering 20 shots on goal – luckily for Malta, it would seem the hosts forgot their finishing boots. Ten attempts hit the target and first half goals from Daniel Sturridge and Dele Alli proved enough to secure three points for the new England manager on his first rodeo.
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