Albanian Football Forum

It’s amazing how hysaj has over 300 appearances in Serie A he’s straight up ass, if Balliu plays we win that game, Seferi shouldn’t see the pitch for the NT ever again, terrible cameo, that slow roller shot directly led to Croatia’s first goal

It was an exciting game and all but looking back at it and looking how Croatia is struggling we could’ve and should’ve won this

Aurora Bulkualis wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2024 8:12 pm It's just disappointing considering how we started both matches. Mentally we're just not there yet. We're the perfect example of a team underachieving because we're not strong mentally.

Let's be honest for a second... in no way is 1 point in this group "underachieving".

If we drew any other group and advanced, and we'd all be euphoric again.

artan wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2024 5:59 pm Di Biasi had half the talent Sylvinho had. Di Biasi had to develop an aggressive defensive style to compete. Guys like Lila were amateurs but they served a purpose and fit his overall scheme. We would bash Di Biasi for not starting Gashi but in hindsight Gashi was not a good player.

Albania was able to compete with very good teams despite the lack of talent. Most of the guys in the current team would walk in that starting lineup. Mavraj is the only player who would start on this team. Maybe a young and motivated taulant Xhaka as well.

I dunno man. Di Biasi had the benefit of more Kosovars with them not having a legit NT yet.

You make it sound like Andi Lila was a life long Superliga player. He was a Greek regular for about 7 years.

Anyways, I'm looking forward to having Sylvinho back. He's still learning. But his debut season was great.

Di Biasi had years where he'd still start guys like Bulku and Cana when there was clearly better replacements. He even cut Djim.

Sylvinho had harder choices to make like benching Asani when he was their most important player in the qualification.

Yeah, I think Sylinho has the better team. But it's nothing great, and I don't think De Biasi could do a better job with it. It still has holes and people playing for 2nd division teams (or just got regulated) or just sub par leagues in general like Romanian, Russia, and of course Korea lol.

If we get rid of Sylinho now, then what? We just risk getting another Reja.

Don't get your hopes up. From what I'm hearing he doesn't want to renew.

Aurora Bulkualis wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2024 9:13 pm Don't get your hopes up. From what I'm hearing he doesn't want to renew.

Yeah I figured. Taking Albania to the Euros will look good on his resume. A good stepping stone to whatever club hires him.

AD already confirmed Sylvinho will be back for World Cup Qualifiers..

The improvement this team has shown is unreal. If you would have told me Albania would come out and score first within 15 minutes against both Italy and Croatia, I would not have believed it. This is unheard of for us in the last 2 decades, just as smoking Poland and Czechia by multiple goals was. The Albania that showed up in the first half today can beat any country in Europe!

That being said, give respect to GDB, the pioneer of our success as an NT. Cracked top 25 by taking results off the best teams in Europe from 2014-16. Created an identity for this team that somewhat still remains to this day!

“Unë personalisht nuk e prisja që Kroacia të ishin kaq dobët..” - Armando Sadiku

I disagree Armando!

I don’t think they were weak! I think we were just really strong!

Croatia is a top 10 ranked team and we took it straight to them today!

Princ wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2024 9:44 pm AD already confirmed Sylvinho will be back for World Cup Qualifiers..

The improvement this team has shown is unreal. If you would have told me Albania would come out and score first within 15 minutes against both Italy and Croatia, I would not have believed it. This is unheard of for us in the last 2 decades, just as smoking Poland and Czechia by multiple goals was. The Albania that showed up in the first half today can beat any country in Europe!

That being said, give respect to GDB, the pioneer of our success as an NT. Cracked top 25 by taking results off the best teams in Europe from 2014-16. Created an identity for this team that somewhat still remains to this day!

This.

His management of this tournament has been questionable in some aspects but the insane progress we've made is undeniable. We went from being literally useless a few years ago, a team that could barely even compete against amateur teams, and would easily lose to all half decent teams without even putting up a fight, to matching Croatia beat for beat in a Euros group stage.

Before with Reja and the likes we were only able to score by luck against top teams. Almost all games against good teams would be near complete shutouts. We now create a good few chances every game against top opposition.

The grass is always greener... the reality is he's done a great job already whatever happens and the progress of the team under him is obvious to see. He still has much to learn, but he can do it with us, and we can build on this to qualify to a World Cup with him!

RedFootballs wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2024 10:26 pm

Princ wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2024 9:44 pm AD already confirmed Sylvinho will be back for World Cup Qualifiers..

The improvement this team has shown is unreal. If you would have told me Albania would come out and score first within 15 minutes against both Italy and Croatia, I would not have believed it. This is unheard of for us in the last 2 decades, just as smoking Poland and Czechia by multiple goals was. The Albania that showed up in the first half today can beat any country in Europe!

That being said, give respect to GDB, the pioneer of our success as an NT. Cracked top 25 by taking results off the best teams in Europe from 2014-16. Created an identity for this team that somewhat still remains to this day!

This.

His management of this tournament has been questionable in some aspects but the insane progress we've made is undeniable. We went from being literally useless a few years ago, a team that could barely even compete against amateur teams, and would easily lose to all half decent teams without even putting up a fight, to matching Croatia beat for beat in a Euros group stage.

Before with Reja and the likes we were only able to score by luck against top teams. Almost all games against good teams would be near complete shutouts. We now create a good few chances every game against top opposition.

The grass is always greener... the reality is he's done a great job already whatever happens and the progress of the team under him is obvious to see. He still has much to learn, but he can do it with us, and we can build on this to qualify to a World Cup with him!

What he did well is get rid of that awful back 3 and play Asllani/Bajrami together. But he's gotten so fucking lucky with Asani. This guy is an amateur who once in a while just scores world class goals from 30 meters out and no is expecting it.

Everything else is questionable.. Hysaj suck ass, and 3/4 goals we've conceded in the last games have direct involvement/f*** up from him. He's supposed to be "better defensively" than Balliu, and he's been an absolute catastrophe. Gjasula was a horrible sub, which again he got lucky from a DM scoring last few seconds. Seferi is a disaster and not playing Broja in a game like this is a fucking crime. He puts him against Italy or even Spain when he gets no service, and today he could've torn shit up.

Sylvinho is being overrated

Anyone could've qualified a team with 12 Serie A players, 2 prem, 3 La Liga, Besiktas/Dinamo Zagreb players to an expanded 24 team Euro.

Don't let Edi Reja's dementia convince you otherwise. Sylvinho didn't do any miracles. Just did the basics. If anything you can argue that he still hasn't gotten the best of them.