Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/378361
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 10 SEPTEMBER 2014 Sport 23 Answers to the MaltaToday crossword will be published next Wednesday WEATHER: Fine VISIBILITY: Good WIND: West to Southwest force 2 to 3 locally force 3 to 4 becoming West to Northwest in the evening. To Northeast of area: becoming locally force 4 to 5 in the afternoon SEA: Slight SWELL: Negligible SEA TEMP: 27 °C A B C D E F G H 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 White to play and mate in four moves A B C D E F G H 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Last week's solution Sudoku rules are extremely easy: Fill all empty squares so that the numbers 1 to 9 appear once in each row, column and 9x9 box. PARTLY CLOUDY 33 º C / 22 º C UV INDEX: 8 Today's Weather Chess Sudoku Pursuits OPINION Across 1. By-product (4-3) 4. Fragment (7) 8. Lacking meaning (11) 12. Converse (4) 13. Let out one's breath audibly (4) 14. Garment worn by women (5) 15. Having stripes (6) 17. Slender part of the leg (5) 22. Ridge of rock (4) 23. Fish covering (5) 24. Adhesive (4) 25. Wept (5) 28. Attractive (6) 30. Cooks in fat (5) 32. Drinks (as a cat) (4) 34. The day of the month (4) 35. Hand tool (11) 38. Space for storing (7) 39. Hug (7) Down 1. Room (5) 2. Russian no (4) 3. Fish appendage (3) 5. Naught (3) 6. Move past (4) 7. Made tighter (9) 8. Pole (4) 9. Resembling ink (4) 10. Female child (4) 11. Ailing (4) 14. Sudden convulsion (5) 16. Firearm (5) 18. The dark (5) 19. Invaluable (9) 20. Destroy (3) 21. Nobles (5) 26. Little devils (4) 27. Make beer or ale (4) 28. Fruit (4) 29. Rip (4) 31. Light greyish brown (5) 33. Mark left by a healed wound (4) 34. Expensive (4) 36. Unit of energy (3) 37. Doctrine (3) THE expansion of Euro 2016 from a 16 team tournament to an all new 24 team tournament has split opinions across the board. The swelling of the tournament has many people questioning whether bigger is indeed better or would a more compact, better quality 16 team platform offer more excitement for the fans over the summer time. Smaller nations must have been chuffed with the news as at last the door crept open a wee jar which might enable teams like Wales or Scotland to finally play on Europe's biggest stage, while the bigger nations route to qual- ification remains, at large unchanged, unless like England you seem to strug- gle with peeling a banana. As it stands the top two finishers of any group will go through, along with the best over all third placed team. The eight remaining third placed countries will then enter an exciting play off which will determine which of UEFA's 53 teams (excluding host na- tion France) will play in the final 24. That qualifying ratio seems rather large and I would argue that it will leave the tournament with a softer belly playing in summer. Naturally the typical favourites remain Europe's elite nations of Italy, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands amongst more, however with teams finishing as low as third place in a six team group smaller nations now stand a chance. Adding the mid table teams to the mix seems as daft as having Stoke City play in the UEFA Champion's League: a sentence I thought I would never, ever have to type and publish. The lower nations, traditionally Eu- rope's whipping boys now only need two wins win to potentially stand a chance in the play offs which does sound exciting however I do have to worry for the over all quality of the tournament come 2016. Gibraltar are UEFA's newest addi- tions, and with Poland offering them a baptism of fire in a 7-0 opening game one does wonder what sort of scoreline we will see from the Iberian tip. San Marino's record is still Europe's worst with a total of zero points bagged at home, a place where they have suf- fered 30 defeats with countless goals conceded. These nations do have eve- ry right to take part even if Gibraltar's starting 11 last weekend consisted of a fireman in goal and a shipping agent upfront. As fellow part times, Malta are extremely proud to take part, and the fans would not have it any other way, myself included. I crave the quali- fying rounds and consider it to be my World Cup or Euro tournament. What I would love to see is a mini tournament held where the bottom nation of each group takes part in a 9 team platform, battling for Europe's wooden spoon. Sport is all about com- petition and that is at its peak when the nations are equally balanced, rather than having constant David and Goliath contests. Those contests do spring up the odd surprise as Tur- key will tell you, however I would love to see how Malta would fare against other smaller nations, while not miss- ing out on playing the likes of Italy en route to Euro 2016. It is those big games we love seeing in Malta, not least when our beautiful national an- them gets swapped for a chart topper in Linkin Park's Numb, still at least we are not ones to take offence to any of that nonsense, as I am sure the Queen would have were it her anthem for England. If anything I feel the recent error provided Malta with some un- likely publicity as it trended well on social media before another ice bucket challenge stole the lime light. Croatia, Bulgaria, Norway as well as Azerbaijan complete group H for Malta in what will be a very tough, but equally exciting group for us. As a football coach I have always believed in playing the best in the game to im- prove oneself, however I also argue that playing teams of similar level can also act as excellent progress tests along the way. Group A for me has to be the group of death, and yet again for the Dutch they are as usual involved. Turkey, the Czech Republic as well as Iceland, Latvia and Kazakhstan form that group, with a top three being hard to predict there. Even if England do somehow man- age to mess up their group, being paired with San Marino should ensure a healthy goal difference while Swit- zerland and Slovenia look to provide sterner tests for the three weak lions. Mark Strijbosch European expansion Rxc8+ Ke7 Qc5+ d6 Qc7+ Nd7 Qd8++