FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
The former defender of Albania, part of the European 2016, Mërgim Mavraj has given an interview to the German media " Wettbasis.com ", a day before the debut of the red and black national team in "EURO 2024".
" The unity is clear. So I believe that the collective is our only weapon, but also the biggest weapon we have. We have individual players who play in good teams that have also won international titles, such as Berat Gjimshiti with Atalanta this year or Kristjan Asllani who became the champion of Serie A with Inter. But nevertheless, for us the main priority is always the team. And this was also our triumph in the qualifiers. We never really excelled at our game or overpowered our opponents. But it has always been the team that has made the difference, even in the past. And I think he will carry the weight in the European this year ."
Fans - Yes, this is another weapon of ours and our home games have shown that. This has always been a triumph for us, because the history of our country is a little too sad, I would say. This means that our people are scattered all over the place. Even when we were in America, we had 30, 40 percent Albanians in the stadium. Of course, when football takes place on the big stage here, there's a lot going on. And that makes it very clear to us. The good thing about Germany is that Switzerland is close, Austria is close, Sweden is not far. So of course the Albanians in Germany, yes, but above all the surroundings. I don't know about Croatia, but the fans are always very present at the end, against Spain I'm sure there will be more Albanians in the stadium than Spaniards.
Passing the group - “ I had an interview recently in Albania and I said that it wouldn't be a big surprise if they passed the group. Considering that Italy is not going through an easy period, considering that Spain is no longer the old Spain and Croatia is no longer the old Croatia. You can see that Germany, France and England are now working steadily, but many countries are not working. Albania is a bag of miracles for me. The qualification was not a great success and we had the Czech Republic and Poland in the group. I must honestly say that apart from Germany and England, as a national player you should not be afraid of any nation ".
Silvinho - " Yes, of course a Brazilian always finds it difficult to defend himself. It is not in his nature. There was also a little bit in the decision-making process to hire him at the time that tipped the scales on whether he would make this compromise and say, Yes, if we have to, we'll build a brick wall and park the bus , because this has always been our great strength. Switch from defense to attack, taking advantage of these opportunities in the match. Maybe we should also wait to get these opportunities and if necessary, draw 0-0. I said it before, we are very close to Italian football. We are not very tech savvy. We are not magicians, we are not filigree footballers. But somehow the Italians are so emotional in the final and it's about their lives. We were there once, now we are there for the second time. Now we have elite players, so to speak. At some point you have to dare to say: Yes, we want to stay in this league now and not just get promoted once every ten years and then get relegated silently, like many teams do ."
The quality of the national team - " Yes, because of history. Most of those who play there now and have played for the last 10-20 years were born and raised abroad and enjoyed their sports training there. Therefore, I think that there are almost 3 million in Albania, but almost 10 million distributed around the world, so to speak .
The match against Italy - " I say a draw because the Albanians will be motivated. It can be 1-1 or 0-0 ″.
Lini një Përgjigje