Bernie’s Sports Focus - 7th September 2012

Malta’s road to the 2014 World Cup begins tonight with the first qualifying match against Armenia.

Coming on the back of three friendly international wins, coach Pietro Ghedin wants to see how his players react to a fully competitive game.

He warns that Armenia area dangerous opponents who like to play fast counter attacking football but he also wants to see Malta cast of the tag of always being the underdogs.

England boss Roy Hodgson says that losing players to injury ahead of their World Cup qualifier against Moldova is a blow.

Wayne Rooney, Andy Carroll, Adam Johnson and Ashley Cole are all out for tonight’s game.

England captain Steven Gerrard however has said that the return of Michael Carrick is a welcome boost for the team.

Among other World Cup matches tonight, Italy will be looking for a major improvement on their Euro 2012 performance as they take on Bulgaria.

Germany are home to minnows the Faroe Islands and Portugal travel to Luxembourg.

As the Formula 1 teams prepare for practice ahead of this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza, McLarens Lewis Hamilton has increased speculation that he could be leaving the team after saying he has not yet made a decision about his future.

It was not a good night for the Malta U/21 side as they lost 5-1 to Ukraine in their final Group 2 game of the UEFA U/21 championship.

Terrence Vella gave Malta an early lead but the Ukrainians hit back strongly to stay in the hunt for a play-off place.