Sliema in Europe

Day -338 WorldCup2018

So much for the Maltese Hibs and their dreams of Champions League glory. They were beaten at home 3-0 by FC Salzburg. That's another joy of following football in a minnow country. After the occasional, rare win you begin to think something big could happen. You even read an overly optimistic story online about how the Maltese team are "close" to qualifying for the Champions League (there was actually such a story about Hibs on a Maltese website), there's a little bit of excitement and then.....bang, boom, smash, it's all over. We are reminded that even though a tennis player from little Luxembourg can beat one of the greatest tennis players ever, it's not going to quite happen yet for little Malta and it's football teams. And we go back to remembering that it's early summer, and we should be on the beach or watching one sport we are quite good at, waterpolo, not sitting in a football stadium. But we do still enjoy the little victories that give us hope.

Speaking of which, the chances of Hibs achieving the impossible are but a faint hope. But it does remind me of a famous European victory by a Maltese team, which was probably unnoticed by most European football fans because it happened in July and they were on the beach, but it was listed by UEFA as one of the greatest comebacks in European competitions ever. In 1996 Sliema Wanderers lost 3-1 at home to Margveti Zestaphoni from Georgia. While the majority of Sliema fans went back to, yes (again), days at the beach and waterpolo, the Sliema players went off to Georgia with the same mentality Gilles Muller probably went into his match with Nadal with: "we play the same game, they may be better but it starts at 0-0" (well, not quite but....). Or they just thought if we are going to go off to Georgia in July, rather than, yes you guessed it sitting on the beach, we might as well make it worthwhile. And the rest is history. I know I wasn't even paying any attention to the match and thought it was a mistake when I saw they won 3-0. A couple of weeks later they were out after a 9-1 aggregate defeat against Odense. But there'll always be Margveti Zestaphoni......

And Riga. Ah ha! Another Latvian reference. There was another dramatic Sliema win in 2003. On the day that I landed in Malta for a rare summer visit, but an important one for my brother's wedding, they were playing and beating Skonto Riga 2-0. I remember trying to figure how we could get straight from the airport to the stadium for some July football but it was not meant to be. It was a very good win against a decent team and in the second leg it looked like the Latvians' were proving they were the better team, who couldn't handle the Maltese July heat, as they led 3-0 in the 92nd minute. But all it takes is one moment of brilliance, and the away goals rule. A goal direct from a free kick gave Sliema an aggregate win. A couple of weeks later Copenhagen had beaten them 10-1 on aggregate. What is it with those Danes and thrashings of Sliema?

Maybe that's why after Valletta lost narrowly to Welsh team Newtown FC in 2015 the Copenhagen fans had this banner made after realising they would have to go to Wales in July and not Malta. It wasn't just the beaches but also the thought of another easy victory. But the banner should have said, "We wished for Sliema."