This upcoming clash truly is a ‘battle of the minnows’ on the international stage as these two nations meet in a League D Group 1 encounter in the Nations League with both teams sitting on just a point apiece prior to this fixture.
Andorra started their new Nations League campaign with a promising 0-0 draw away from home at Latvia which saw the Andorrans get off the mark in their opening match in Group 1, but then promptly lost 1-0 at home to the early group leaders, Faroe Islands.
💪 Segueixen els entrenaments individuals.🔜 Avui es faran nous test per confirmar els negatius de la plantilla. #SomTricolors🔵🟡🔴 pic.twitter.com/OJA4x0diyT— FC Andorra (@fcandorra) October 6, 2020
💪 Segueixen els entrenaments individuals.🔜 Avui es faran nous test per confirmar els negatius de la plantilla. #SomTricolors🔵🟡🔴 pic.twitter.com/OJA4x0diyT
With only one team gaining promotion from each of the two groups in League D and both Andorra and Malta already finding themselves five points adrift of Faroe Islands, it looks as though both nations will be battling to avoid the wooden spoon in Group 1.
Andorra have managed to register just one win from their last 20 matches overall, while at home it’s just one win from their previous 13 matches, where 11 of these matches ended in under 2.5 goals.
Onto Malta, and the visitors find themselves in the same boat as their hosts, Andorra, ahead of this early ‘battle of the wooden spoonists’ as they started with a 3-2 loss on the road at Faroe Islands but held Latvia to a 1-1 draw at home in the following fixture.
The visitors also possess an extremely lean record in terms of wins on the international stage as Malta have managed to pick up just one win out of their last 28 matches, which was actually a 2-1 home win against Faroe Islands in a European Championship qualifier back in March of last year, but they’ve also lost 21 of these 28 matches too.
Malta are also 15 away matches without a win in all competitions which has contributed to numerous poor showings in either Nations League, European Championship qualifiers or World Cup qualifiers.
In addition, Malta have also failed to score in 10 of these last 15 away matches as well which obviously hasn’t helped their cause on the international scene and has also been a catalyst behind eight of these 15 matches resulting in under 2.5 goals.
These two teams have met twice before and each clash ended in a 1-1 draw, so another low-scoring affair looks set to unfold on Saturday.