Klaus Gjasula’s stoppage-time equaliser against Croatia keeps Albania’s dream of the Euro 2024 knockout rounds alive. Dan Mullan/Getty Images
It means a lot for Albania to be in Germany. Prime minister Edi Rama has even suspended the nation’s parliament for 10 days to enable more than 100 ministers and parliamentarians to attend the fixtures against Italy, Croatia and Spain.
Of the current squad, just eight players were born in Albania. Five were born in Switzerland and others in Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Macedonia, Kosovo and England. It is perhaps the links to Italy that are the strongest, though, in terms of both the makeup of the team and Rama’s early memories of the sport.
Ten of the 26 players in Germany play in Italy — nine of them in Serie A — including star player, the Inter Milan midfielder Kristjan Asllani. One of the dominant languages inside the dressing room is Italian. Other notable names include former Barcelona striker Rey Manaj and Chelsea’s Slough-born forward Armando Broja, but it is a team that excelled as a block in qualifying for the tournament.
Manager and former Brazil international Sylvinho, assisted by his former Manchester City teammate Pablo Zabaleta, prefers to set the team up in a 4-3-3 formation, playing on the counterattack. They lost just once in eight games to qualify ahead of Czechia and Poland.
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When Rama was growing up under the repressive rule of Enver Hoxha in communist Albania, he watched the World Cup in 1982 on what he has called a “dark network” operated by RAI, the Italian state broadcaster. He said, “football was the image of another world for us, the chance to see a moving mirror, a forbidden dream.”
For the new generations, that dream is no longer forbidden. Bajrami’s early goal and Gjasula’s late equaliser are moments of history and inspiration. The current squad may benefit from football schooling across Europe, but the hope is that moments like this will spawn more homegrown talent in the coming years.
There could still be more big moments to come, too. Albania have their work cut out in Düsseldorf against one of the best teams in the tournament so far, but Spain have already secured top spot in Group B and coach Luis de la Fuente is expected to rest players. Midfielder Rodri will miss the game regardless through suspension and other players may be given a break ahead of the knockout rounds.
Albania have shown against Italy and Croatia that they are up for the fight and they will once again have the bulk of the support against Spain at the Düsseldorf Arena.
That they go into the final group game with hope of the knockout rounds is validation for the often-scrutinised decision to expand the finals to 24 teams in 2016. Georgia, the one team ranked lower Albania at the tournament, could also still progress in another refreshing storyline given the domination of western European sides in club and international football.
“I’m so happy that we are still competing to get through the group stage,” Sylvinho said ahead of the Spain match. “Almost no one believed we would be able compete. Some people were thinking that we would concede three or four goals in each match, but here we are, still in the tournament.”
Source link : https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/40414542/against-all-odds-albania-euro-2024-knockouts-reach
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Publish date : 2024-06-23 07:00:00
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