Having been knocked out of both the Champions League and the Europa League qualifiers, RFS have just one of their three lifelines left, as tonight they face Hamrun Spartans in the 1st leg of the Conference League play-off tie.
Following the rather surprising loss to KuPS in the Europa League 3rd qualifying round, RFS failed to secure their early ticket to Europe and will now have to go through a tough elimination match against the reigning Maltese champions Hamrun Spartans.
Although a team from Malta may not strike fear in some, the Hamrun Spartans can turn out to be a tougher task than some think.
A look into the Maltese champions
Founded in 1907, Hamrun have been crowned the champions of Malta 11 times, most recently last season. They’ve also lifted the Maltese Cup six times and the Maltese Super Cup seven times.
Despite their great local success, they have never qualified for European competitions. The furthest they ever got was back in the 2022/23 season, where they got knocked out by Partizan in the UECL play-offs (4:7).
The side coached by Giacomo Modica is used to play a 4-5-1 formation and has a wide selection of players from 13 different countries.
The incredible road to the 2025 championship
The Maltese Premier League headed down to the wire last season with four teams chasing the silverware. The league system in Malta consists of three rounds – first stage, second stage, and play-offs, with the first six teams advancing to the Champions Path and the bottom six to the Relegation Path.
Hamrun Spartans just barely scraped their ticket to the Champions Path as they finished level on points with 7th placed Hibernians, but claimed the 6th place spot because of a better goal difference.
In the second stage, they played much more convincingly, finishing 1st out of the six teams and going into the play-offs as the first seed. There, they triumphed in the final after beating Birkirkara 1:0.
Team’s form and style of play
Maltese Premier League is not a summer league, and unlike RFS, which kicked off its season in March, Hamrun Spartans began their season with European qualifiers.
In the UCL 1st qualifying round, they faced the Lithuanian champions Vilnius Žalgiris. Despite losing the first leg 2:0, they completed an incredible comeback on home soil, eventually triumphing in penalties. In the 2nd qualifying round, Dynamo Kyiv proved to be too strong of an opponent as they suffered a thrashing 6:0 loss on aggregate.
Hamrun dropped down to the Europa League qualifiers. There they faced Maccabi Tel-Aviv and despite putting up a good fight at home, Maccabi gave them no chance in the 2nd leg (2:5), as they fell down to their last lifeline, same as RFS – the Conference League play-offs.
Apart from the games in the European qualifiers, Hamrun have only played one more competitive match – the league opener against Tarxien last Sunday, which ended in a 1:1 draw just last Sunday.
Hamrun are used to playing a fast-paced attacking football, using the traits of their technical South American and African forwards.
In Europe so far this season, same as RFS, Hamrun have scored just 4 goals, conceding 13 along the way, compared to RFS’ eight.
Key players and players to watch
Hamrun Spartans’ style of play is based on counter-attacks often started and finished by their fast-paced forwards, while the defensive work is being done by the locals and other European players.
- Joseph Mbong – born in Nigeria, Mbong has been a Maltese international for quite some time now and has been a part of the club for almost 5 years. The 28-year-old winger has scored two of their four goals in the qualifiers and last season recorded eight goals and seven assists in all competitions.
- Talison – another highly technical and fast winger from Brazil, who can cause problems, especially in the counter-attacks. Last season, Talison scored four goals and assisted four times.
- Domantas Šimkus – one to keep an eye on for the Baltic football fans. The former FA Šiaulai and Lithuanian international is an important part of the Maltese champions’ midfield.
Injuries & suspensions
Hamrun are without any injured players as the season has just kicked off in Malta, and every player is up to full fitness, which could be a slight advantage for the RFS’ opponents.
Impact players
Apart from the already mentioned forwards Joseph Mbong and Talison, the Cittadella academy graduate Saliou Thioune. The 21-year-old Italian can play in numerous different positions, but is mostly used either as an attacking midfielder or a winger. The midfielder has already scored once during their qualifying campaign and joined Hamrun Spartans this summer, the same as Ante Coric. The Croatian midfielder was once considered an exciting prospect in Europe, signing for AS Roma back in 2018 for 6 million. Unfortunately, his career didn’t turn out as good as expected.
Coric has already made some appearances for Hamrun and is slowly being integrated into the starting XI, meaning we might see him in action tonight.
N’Dri Koffi is also one to look out for, having contributed to three of Hamrun’s four goals.
RFS updates
Although RFS are on an 8-match winning streak in the Virsliga, they have lost their last four matches in Europe and also haven’t kept a clean sheet in eight straight games. The main reason for that is injuries, with both Herdi Prenga and Niks Sliede being out for a long period.
In the 1st leg, RFS will also be without their star player Jānis Ikaunieks, who’s still suspended following his red card in Malmö.
In terms of squad registration, RFS have replaced Dāvis Ikaunieks and injured Jeremy Porsan-Clemente with Ismael Diomande and Lasha Odisharia.
Lasha hasn’t traveled with the team for the 1st leg match in Malta, but has around a 50% chance of playing in the 2nd leg. Meanwhile, Ismael is expected to play around 30 minutes, most likely coming on from the bench.
