The biggest game of the World Cup – for the Maltese

The Brazil World Cup might be just two days old, but Malta’s exceptional Anglo-Italian football rivalry will reach fever pitch tonight when Italy and England clash in their first match. Although the match will not dictate any of the two teams’ fate, for thousands of Maltese it is the most important match of the month-long tournament. The Maltese will be glued to their TV screens as Italy and England kick off in Manaus at the ungodly hour of midnight. It is a rematch of the Euro 2012 quarter-finals in Ukraine two years ago which the Azzurri had won on penalties. But it has been 24 years since the two teams met in the World Cup, when Italy beat England to take third place. Bars, restaurants and so-called World Cup villages are all set for this evening’s tie, with many establishments yesterday saying they will be fully-booked. When contacted, one restaurant owner sounded flustered because his projector went dead in the dying minutes of the Brazil v Croatia match and was now in a race against time to replace it for tonight’s big clash. The Maltese traffic police are all set for the night, with sources saying extra officers will be positioned in strategic locations to ease the...