England vs Malta: Maltese keeper Andrew Hogg insists English football ‘is an embarrassment’
World Cup minnows' No 1 says sacking of Sam Allardyce and a series of corruption allegations make us a laughing stock
ENGLISH football is now an embarrassment.
That is according to a Malta player aiming for a World Cup shock next weekend.
England take on the Group F minnows at Wembley on Saturday looking to put a week of shame for the national game behind them.
But Malta goalkeeper Andrew Hogg says the sacking of Sam Allardyce and a series of corruption allegations have made the country’s football a laughing stock.
He said: “What has happened this week, it’s embarrassing. It is an embarrassment to English football.
“Everyone used to have this opinion that English football is squeaky clean, no?
“I assume that we will get more stories now.”
On Sunday Gareth Southgate names his first squad since taking over on an interim basis — amid concerns he has had little time to prepare for the role.
But Hogg, who plays in the Malta Premier League for Hibernians, said: “Having such a short time to work with the players won’t be a problem — international managers don’t have much time to work with their teams anywhere.
“But for the Maltese team the change of manager means nothing to us.”
England have been warned not to treat Malta as a second-rate international team.
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The whole country will expect an easy three points from Southgate’s bow.
And with Scotland thumping Malta 5-1 last month, the onus is on England to serve up a goal-fest. But Hogg, 31, said: “With all due respect, we are not San Marino or Gibraltar.
“There is a misconception that the football here is absolutely rubbish — it’s not.
“It’s not like we are not used to playing big opposition because in the last qualifying we had Italy, Croatia and Bulgaria — we have had some good opposition.
“Most of the time, apart from the odd result like our last game against Scotland, we give a good account of ourselves.
“I feel that as a team we are compact, we defend well and gain the respect of many teams.
“We have played Italy four times over the past four years and the results were two 2-1 defeats and two 1-0 losses.
“Okay we lost all the games, but they were tight.
“If you saw the Scotland game, up until around the 60th minute, they were thinking ‘oh s***’. Until we got a player sent off for absolutely no reason and a penalty given against us it was tight.
“It became a bit comical and obviously Scotland wanted to leave a mark, but don’t knock us.
“I can’t be overly optimistic and off my mind and say we are going to go there and win, but we can give a good account of ourselves.”