2023/24 European Cup statistics

European Cup Statistics

1 – Each of the four Maltese clubs in Europe fielded at least one Maltese player who never appeared in any European club competition before. Gzira tops the list with four youngsters as Deyan Pace (18) made his EC debut with the Maroons away to Viktoria in the Czech Republic, while Mohamed Alouzi (20), Izaak Ellul (19) and Hytem Kabar (20) all three made a late substitute appearance last Thursday at the National Stadium in the return match against the same Czechs. Birkirkara used two Maltese debutants as substitutions in their home match with Maribor, which were strikers Omar Elouni and Jed Valletta. Marcus Grima made his European club debut with Balzan with two substitute appearances against Belarus side Neman Grodno, while 18-year-old Malta Under 19 international Shaisen Attard did the same for Hamrun Spartans in Budapest against Ferencvaros.

5 – Jake Grech’s penalty goal against Domzale in Balzan’s epic 4-1 victory over the Slovenians at their own ground, was the former Hibernians player’s fifth goal in the European club competitions. Only five players scored more goals in Europe, which are Gilbert Agius (11), Andre’ Schembri, Michael Mifsud (both 9), Jefferson de Assis and Jurgen Degabriele, who have scored both seven goals in the process.  

5 – Hamrun Spartans’ opponents Ferencvaros visited Malta for the fifth time in any European Cup competition, having being paired previously with Floriana (1972), Birkirkara (2003), Sliema Wanderers (2014) and Valletta (2018). Maltese clubs also played the Slovaks of Spartak Trnava five times, as well as Partizan Belgrade of Serbia. These three clubs top the list of exactly 200 clubs who have been drawn with Maltese clubs in the various European cup competitions through the years.

7 – Gzira United coach Darren Abdilla prolonged his unique Maltese record of having qualified for the next round of a European club competition by obtaining another two qualifications with the Maroons against Glentoran and F91 Dudelange in the Europa Conference League. The 44-year-old mentor obtained five qualifications with Gzira in this competition, once in the Europa League and once with Valletta in the qualification phase of the 2019/20 UEFA Champions League. Before this summer, Abdilla was sharing this record with Mark Miller, who obtained five qualifications with Valletta (twice), Floriana, Sliema Wanderers and Hibernians. Miller reached three of these five in the qualification of the UEFA Champions League

25 – Balzan’s 4-1 victory over Domzale at their own Sports Park in Slovenia was not only the first time that a Maltese club scored four goals away from the island in any UEFA club competition, it was also the 25^th away (on foreign soil) win for a Maltese club in Europe. The first official away victory was obtained by Hamrun Spartans, beating Northern Irish side Ballymena United 0-1 at the Showgrounds in the European Cup Winners Cup on 26 September 1984. On that historical day, the only goal of the match was scored by Raymond Xuereb. The 0-4 and 0-3 victories of Sliema Wanderers and Hibernians in 1971 against Icelandic opposition (Akranes and Fram) are not taken into consideration as both Icelandic clubs accepted to play both legs of their double EC header in Malta.

30 - The home match against Dinamo Tbilisi was Ryan Camenzuli's 30th match in the European Cup competitions, becoming only the tenth Maltese player in history to reach this total. The Hamrun Spartans winger played most of these matches in the colours of Birkirkara (14), thirteen for Hamrun and three for Floriana. 

40 – Steve Borg’s substitute appearance in Budapest against Ferencvaros last Thursday was the Malta captain’s 40^th game in the various European club competitions. The former Mosta, Aris, Valletta and Gzira United player has reached the total of Gilbert Agius (Valletta), with only Roderick Briffa (45) and Joseph Zerafa (43) having made more appearances in the UEFA club competitions.

40 – The memorable marathon penalty victory of Gzira United in Belfast over Glentoran on the 20^th of July was the 40^th qualification of a Maltese team to the next round in any European club competition. Gzira added number 41 two weeks later in Luxembourg and one day later, also Hamrun reached the next round, which means the total number of qualifications is now 42. Most of these were obtained in the UEFA Europa Conference League qualifiers (13), followed by 11 in the qualifying rounds of the UEFA Europa League and 10 in the Champions League preliminaries. The remaining six qualifications were achieved in the four abolished UEFA club tournaments; four in the Cup Winners Cup, two in the UEFA Cup and one each in the Champions Cup and Intertoto Cup.

50 – Last Thursday’s games of Gzira United versus Viktoria Plzen and Hamrun’s away match in against Ferencvaros were numbers 49 and 50 for Maltese participants in the UEFA Europa Conference League. This latest UEFA league, considered to be the 3^rd rank league in Europe, started in the summer of 2021 with Mosta’s home game against Spartak Trnava (3-2), which was not only the club’s debut in Europe but the very first match played in this UEFA competition as well. Maltese clubs fared much better in this competition compared to any other UEFA club competition as, from these 50 games, 19 were won, 12 matches ended in a draw while in 19 games the Maltese were defeated.

60 – Hamrun Spartans’ participation in the qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League, was the 60^th participation in history for a Maltese club in both European Champion’s tournaments. Hibernians was the first one in 1961 in the abolished European Champions Cup, with this competition being replaced by the UEFA Champions League in 1992. Between 1994/95 and 1996/97, the Maltese champions (Hibernians 93/94 & 94/95 and Sliema Wanderers 95/96) participated in the UEFA Cup competition and from 1997 onwards, the Maltese champion is taking part in the qualifying phase of the UEFA Champions League. Therefore, 31 Maltese champions participated in the old European Champions Cup and 29 in the qualification phase of the UEFA Champions League.   

80 – The magnificent victory of Malta champions Hamrun Spartans over former European Cup Winners Cup winners Dinamo Tbilisi in Georgia (0-1) was not only the 10^th win of the Spartans in the European Cup, but also the 80^th win for any Maltese club in the European Cup competitions. The first ever victory was obtained at the nostalgic but infamous Manoel Island ground, when Sliema Wanderers beat Panathinaikos by a single goal scored by Leli Micallef on 10 October 1965. A total of 53 games were won in Malta, while there were 27 victories on foreign soil.

200 – Viktoria Plzen, Gzira United’s opponents in the third qualifying round of the UEFA Europa Conference League, was the 200^th European club to be drawn against a Maltese opponent in any UEFA club competition since Malta started participating in 1961. In that year, Servette Geneve from Switzerland (European Champions Cup) and Hungarian giants Ujpest Dosza in the European Cup Winners Cup were the first two opponents drawn against Hibernians and Floriana respectively.

500 - Birkirkara's home defeat against Maribor (1-2) was the 500th game of a Maltese club in history of the European Cup competitions. On 6 September 1961, Hibernians was the very first club who played a match in a European Cup competition, in Switzerland away to Servette Geneva, followed by Floriana eleven days later in a home match against Ujpest Dosza from Hungary. With the concluding of the Gzira and Hamrun matches last Thursday, we have reached a number of 511 in the various European Cups, which are divided into:

*UEFA Cup: 106
*UEFA Europa League qualification: 90
*European Cup Winners Cup: 82
*UEFA Champions League qualification: 77
*European Champions Cup: 64
*UEFA Europa Conference League qualification: 50
*UEFA Intertoto Cup: 36
*Fairs Cities Cup: 6