football

After two consecutive defeats, Albania hopes to return to success

National team of Albania

Albania successfully started the fourth edition of the UEFA Nations League. Won 2:1 against Ukraine in Prague on September 7. But then suffered two consecutive defeats. Lost 1:0 in Tirana to Georgia on September 10 and 2:0 to the Czech Republic in Prague last Friday. Especially against the Czech Republic, Albania showed very little and the performance was considered disappointing.

Albania will have a difficult mission on Monday night as well. From 18:00 in Tbilisi, they play against Georgia, who together with the Czech Republic have six points after three rounds in Group B1 of the League of Nations.

On Friday, within this group, the match between Ukraine and Georgia took place in Poznan, Poland. The Ukrainians won 1:0 for the first points in the group.

Thus Group B1 remains completely open and each representative has the possibility to advance to League A.

A lot will depend on Monday's games. From 20:45 in Wroclaw is the match Ukraine - Czech Republic.

The coach of Albania, Sylvinho, appeared at the press conference on Sunday. The Brazilian knows well that the points lost in Monday's game can be costly.

He has asked the players for maximum concentration in order to get this Nations League campaign back on track.

"We spent a lot of energy in the last match. The Czech Republic is a very physical team, it also transitions. It was a very difficult game, just like it will be against Georgia. In the group we belong to, anything can happen. We don't know about the lineup yet, we had a long journey from Prague, we arrived late at the hotel, we will find out tomorrow. We have training, we will talk to the players and we have a day to decide. We have players who can enter the field and we trust them 100 percent, but we will make the choice tomorrow", declared Sylvinho.

There will be shortages in Georgia for the duel against Albania. One of them is Giorgi Kochorashvili, Levante's midfielder in La Liga 2.

"Tomorrow we have to get points because otherwise it becomes difficult to reach the objective. We have to live with this reality. We know that if we get a negative result tomorrow, it does not serve us to achieve the objective we have. We only need victory and three points tomorrow. We have a small advantage, since in November we play the last two games of the season at home. But it is very important that we give our all tomorrow and get a positive result. Georgia is very, very strong, but we are also a strong team", said the Brazilian technician, who secured the European Championship in Germany with Albania.

The central defender Ardian Ismajli confirmed that Albania definitely needs the victory.

He emphasized that the group is united and they have full confidence that they will emerge victorious from the "Mikheil Meskhi" stadium.

"Yes, it's true, we have two losses in the last two games. I believe that in the first match against Georgia we did not deserve to lose. However, it is already past. We must look forward. Only victory makes us work. We came for three points, we hope we will succeed. Only the three-pointer keeps us in the race for first place", said center back Ismajli, who is active at Empoli in Italy's Serie A.

The Georgian center back, Saba Goglichidze, plays together with Ismajli at Empoli.

Ismajli has evaluated him as a powerful and very qualitative center back. Meanwhile, he also mentioned Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who is a star of the Georgian representative.

"We all know Kvaratskhelia for the quality and skills he has. But just like in the first game we managed to stop him, I believe that we will stop him tomorrow too, because the group makes the result and the match. And especially in the defense for the prohibition of the shares of the opponents", Ismajli declared.

That Georgia will be a difficult opponent for Albania is also shown by the fact that the Georgians have not lost in front of their fans since November 2021.

Meanwhile, Albania has scored only one goal in the last six visits to Georgia.

Albania plays the last two matches of this edition of the League of Nations against the Czech Republic and Ukraine. The "reds" will play both matches in November in Tirana.