Armenia vs Malta
International Friendlies
Date: Tuesday, 29th May 2018
Kick-Off at 18:00 UK / 19:00 CET
Venue: Gernot Langes Stadion, Wattens (Austria).
Both Armenia and Malta start a new chapter under new managers after persistent failure to qualify for a major tournament.
Armenia had a terrible World Cup qualifying campaign, finished second from last in the table with a 5 match win-less streak suffering heavy defeats to Poland, Montenegro and Romania. There is some quality and experience in the squad, but they often failed to do justice to their talent on the football field.
The new man in charge of the Armenian football team is Vardan Minasyan, whose previous stint between 2009 and 2014 saw the team winning 35% of their matches, arguably the best in the team’s history considering the length of his tenure. Minasyan’s first task will be to rebuild the squad with an eye on the upcoming UEFA Cup of Nations.
Malta continue to slide down the FIFA rankings and registered their lowest in history when they were placed 191 in September 2017. They climbed a couple of places since and are currently 185th, but this is not achieved by winning football matches. After finishing bottom of the World Cup qualifying group, the minnows lost three friendlies without scoring to moderate sides like Estonia, Finland and Luxembourg.
They are a tiny nation with limited resources and swift progress is hardly expected. However, the new manager in charge Ray Farrugia, set to make his debut against Armenia, will be keen to see his team produce a respectable performance against a much experienced and talented team.
Armenia vs Malta Head-to-head
- There has been four meetings so far between Armenia and Malta, 2 in friendlies and the latest 2 in World Cup qualifiers for 2014.
- Armenia won the first three duels before losing their most recent h2h fixture.
- All the games saw the same 1-0 full-time score-line.
Armenia vs Malta Prediction
As mentioned earlier, there is plenty of talent in this Armenian squad, but they often fail to produce their best in the football field. Their round of friendlies in March went disastrous, held goal-less by Estonia before losing 1-0 to Lithuania. Now that Henrikh Mkhitaryan is back to full fitness, he could form a deadly partnership with Gevorg Ghazaryan just behind the strikers. This in turn indicated towards a difficult evening for Malta on Tuesday.
Armenia vs Malta Betting Tips
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Armenia -1.5 Asian Handicap @ 2.25 odds.
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Over 2.5 ft goals @ 2.07 odd.
