Albanian teams in Europe 25-26

[ReyM9]

Dinamo is punching way above their weight. They have made this match with Pafos competitive and even pinned them back many times.

but....

Way too many amateurs and bonehead players on this team. Giving away penalties for no reason, stupid handballs and bad decisions. A bit of a lucky result tbh but at least Dinamo can match them physically. They can run a lot which is rare for Albanian teams.

[Aurora Bulkuolis]

That penalty was painful. Completely unnecessary and gave 0 advantage. What a waste.

The fact that Daja can make them competitive with a team worth 4-5 times more, just goes to show how good of a coach he is.

[Raketa]

2nd penalty wasn’t real..

Encouraging to see Albanian football making strides forward this year.

Would like to see more Superliga players playing for the NT.

[redfootballsv2]

Pafos are a serious team. They nearly qualified to the next stage of CL? last season.

A draw is a shock result, and even more shocking is that they were playing on equal terms, Dinamo were highly competitive.

Egnatia also got the better end of a 0-0 vs Lillestrom.

[Raketa]

Egnatia leads 0-1 at Lillestrom!

[Aurora Bulkuolis]

Dinamo's goal looked onside. Do they have offside technology in these lower competitions?

[ReyM9]

Great fight by both. Egnatia kinda choked. They had a bunch of chances to get a 2nd goal.

Problem is that you have to beat these teams in 90 minutes. When it goes to extra time you know it's a wrap for Albanian teams. They don't have that type of stamina.

[redfootballsv2]

So unlucky. Both teams fought valiantly.

Even though both went out in extra time its impressive to see that they gave a good account of themselves against very professional teams, especially Dinamo. Egnatia especially had great chances to win.

Hopefully this will continue and Albanian teams will start to become more professional in Europe.

[SugarRey]

All the Albanians team choked. Disappointing for Drita who made it last year and should have had the experience to go through.

As for next year... We say that every year lol. Albanian Superliga peaked in 2013-2017 and even then it was still shit. Skenderbeu were obviously juggernauts but Kukesi had some moments where they almost made it to the EL (lost in penalties) and in the modern format would have made it to the conference league. Tirana and Partizani were still the same shit then too tho.

Albanian football is just a joke. The national team would just be as bad as the domestic league but thankfully they have had diaspora propping up that disaster for a decade plus now. Albania would be equivalent to Montenegro or even worse. It will never get better.