Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/638406
maltatoday, Wednesday, 10 February 2016 20 Sport SPORTTODAY football Italy to play Scotland at ta' Qali in May Friendly at Ta' Qali expected to draw record crowd for euro 2016 warm-up match The Italian national team (right) will face Scotland in a friendly match ahead of the UeFA euro 2016, at Ta' Qali stadium on 29 May, Italian media sources have confirmed. The friendly is expected to draw a record crowd at Malta's national stadium, hosting home- grown fans of both the Italian national team, and surely some 'english' rivals who would relish a Scotland win. During that period, the Mal- tese national team will be at an Austrian training camp, where it will also play the Czech Republic and the Austrian national team. The UeFA european Champi- onship this year is the 15th edi- tion of the football champion- ship, to be held in France from 10 June to 10 July. Spain are the two-time defending champions. For the first time, the european Championship final tournament will be contested by 24 teams, having been expanded from the 16-team format used since 1996. Under this new format, the fi- nalists will contest a group stage consisting of six groups of four teams, followed by a knockout stage including three rounds and the final. It will be the third time that France hosts the tournament, after the inaugural tournament in 1960 and the 1984 finals. The French team have won the eu- ropean Championship twice: in 1984 and 2000. Messi undergoes tests for kidney problems Foxes 'enjoying the ride' - Jamie Vardy BARCelonA striker lionel Messi is expected to play in Wednesday's King's Cup semi- final against Valencia despite missing training on Monday to have tests on his kidneys, the la liga club said. "Barcelona striker lionel Mes- si will undergo several tests on Monday and Tuesday to assess the evolution of the kidney prob- lems he suffered last December," Barcelona said in a statement on their website (www.fcbarcelona. com) "Messi will return to his nor- mal duties with the first team on Wednesday." The Argentina international missed his team's FIFA Club World Cup semi-final in De- cember as he was suffering from renal colic, a type of abdominal pain often caused by kidney stones. Despite the problem, he played in the final three days later and has also played in all of Barca's league games since. Barcelona visit Valencia in the second leg of their King's Cup semi-final on Wednesday. The la liga leaders take a 7-0 lead into the match. Lionel Messi JAMIe Vardy has refused to put any title pressure on leicester ahead of their trip to rivals Arse- nal. The Foxes' 18-goal top scorer insists they must ignore the hype surrounding their shock challenge for the Barclays Premier league. leicester are top of the table by five points and go to the Gunners on Sunday having beaten Man- chester City 3-1 on Saturday. Arsenal are third, level on points with Tottenham, but despite leicester's lead Vardy believes they have to stay calm. "We're just enjoying it aren't we? We're just enjoying the ride," said the england striker, speaking at a FIFA 16 event. "If you start thinking about it too much it's going to affect you, it's as simple as that. "We'll just continue to do ex- actly the same thing we've done all season. "They're (Arsenal) up there, we're up there, (Manchester) City are, Tottenham, Manchester United might be 10 points adrift but the way this season's going those 10 points can be picked up quickly. "We'll just take every game as it comes, knuckle down and hope- fully keep picking points up." Claudio Ranieri's side have lost just twice in the league all season, once to Arsenal when they went down 5-2 in September, and Var- dy knows the challenge they face this weekend. he said: "no doubt it will be tough (against Arsenal), we know the players they've got are world class but although we lost 5-2 when we played them last time we did show that we can hurt them. "I think it'll be a matter of us tightening up a bit defensively which, as we've seen, we've kept a lot of clean sheets recently. "It's going to be a good, enter- taining game." Jamie Vardy