Albanian Football Forum

Plako wrote:

Baloz wrote:So much defeatism lol. Be more optimistic guys.

There is nothing to be optimistic about though.

We are in the European Cup for the first time in the history. I asked my dad, who was a fan of the 80-90's football (he keeps telling me about that Flamurtati - Partizan Beogradit game) and never in his wildest dreams he would have though we would have made it. You telling me there is nothing to be optimistic about! I don't care if we lose each game 5-0 at this point but just being there in person to watch France - Albania and Albania -Romania would make everything worthwhile for me.

IndritFieri wrote:
We are in the European Cup for the first time in the history. I asked my dad, who was a fan of the 80-90's football (he keeps telling me about that Flamurtati - Partizan Beogradit game) and never in his wildest dreams he would have though we would have made it. You telling me there is nothing to be optimistic about! I don't care if we lose each game 5-0 at this point but just being there in person to watch France - Albania and Albania -Romania would make everything worthwhile for me.

Honestly, nobody considers qualifying for this tournament as some sort of big feat because of the expansion. People still look at Albania as some amateurs that qualified because of it and everyone expects us to finish last in the group. Yes you can technically say that we never qualified before and this is the first time but this is also the first time HALF OF EUROPE is taking part in a tournament. Albania needs to make a solid impression in the Euros to gain some respect.

Dallku wrote:

IndritFieri wrote:
We are in the European Cup for the first time in the history. I asked my dad, who was a fan of the 80-90's football (he keeps telling me about that Flamurtati - Partizan Beogradit game) and never in his wildest dreams he would have though we would have made it. You telling me there is nothing to be optimistic about! I don't care if we lose each game 5-0 at this point but just being there in person to watch France - Albania and Albania -Romania would make everything worthwhile for me.

Honestly, nobody considers qualifying for this tournament as some sort of big feat because of the expansion. People still look at Albania as some amateurs that qualified because of it and everyone expects us to finish last in the group. Yes you can technically say that we never qualified before and this is the first time but this is also the first time HALF OF EUROPE is taking part in a tournament. Albania needs to make a solid impression in the Euros to gain some respect.

The expansion had no effect on us. We would have qualified under the previous regime aswell as we finished second.

Albo_eagle wrote:
The expansion had no effect on us. We would have qualified under the previous regime aswell as we finished second.

You say that because we finished 2nd in the group but what the expansion did was lower the motivation of the bigger teams because they thought qualification would be routine. For some it bit them in the ass(look at the Dutch). So it was easier for smaller teams like Albania, Northern Ireland, Iceland, Hungary, etc to creep up in the tables, because of sheer will and motivation. The actual tournament will be a different beast. Everyone will be motivated there.

And let's be honest, we finished 2nd because of the free points from CAS(although they were right to give them) we didn't exactly get them on the pitch.

My point is that neutrals will respect Albania only if they see something in June. Qualifying for this is just not special anymore.

IndritFieri wrote:We are in the European Cup for the first time in the history. I asked my dad, who was a fan of the 80-90's football (he keeps telling me about that Flamurtati - Partizan Beogradit game) and never in his wildest dreams he would have though we would have made it. You telling me there is nothing to be optimistic about! I don't care if we lose each game 5-0 at this point but just being there in person to watch France - Albania and Albania -Romania would make everything worthwhile for me.

Well we have qualified already so that's already in the past. I am going to all three games (flying from NYC) and am stoked but there is nothing to be optimistic about going into the Euro. I will cheer the boys all the way through to the end but realistically we're only getting 1 or 2 points at the most from this group.

I gotta be honest I don't like this "if they score a goal it's a success" doom and gloom talk. I definitely think they can score more than just one goal against these teams in three matches.

Dallku wrote: And let's be honest, we finished 2nd because of the free points from CAS(although they were right to give them) we didn't exactly get them on the pitch.

Serbia wouldn't finish above us regardless of CAS. If we took 3 points away from our team, gave them to Serbia, and removed their 3 point ban, Serbia would still be below us.

You could make the case that Denmark could have finished second with just 1 point above us but

a) I think after CAS gave us 3 points our performances took a major dip, because we couldn't cope psychologically with being leaders. Being underdogs likely would have gained us more points from Portugal, Denmark, Serbia games. I mean 2 ET losses in a row at home would have never happened if we weren't group leaders and choked.

b) The 0-2 Serbia game would have finished 0-0 if we didn't learn of Denmark losing last minute and us qualifying directly if we won that game.

c) There's no guarantee we would have gotten 0 points in that Serbia game in Belgrade.

d) We could have won through playoffs too.

So even if with no CAS points, Denmark would be 1 points and the dynamics could have gone very differently. I think it's still sure 80-90% we would have qualified regardless of CAS.

I think it is realistic to expect us to get a couple of a points and even potentially win a game (which could qualify us as one of the third place teams that get through the group stage). If it doesn't happen, we can discuss it post mortem, but all in all will be a successful campaign unless we get blown out each game.

NYVirus wrote:I think it is realistic to expect us to get a couple of a points and even potentially win a game (which could qualify us as one of the third place teams that get through the group stage). If it doesn't happen, we can discuss it post mortem, but all in all will be a successful campaign unless we get blown out each game.

We might get blown out in the France game but the other two games will be close affairs in my book. The Swiss game will be tight only because the Swiss Albos won't dare to put more than 2 past us

NYVirus wrote:I think it is realistic to expect us to get a couple of a points and even potentially win a game (which could qualify us as one of the third place teams that get through the group stage). If it doesn't happen, we can discuss it post mortem, but all in all will be a successful campaign unless we get blown out each game.

I think 4 of the third place teams go through. Anyway we should beat Switzerland and Romania.