European Football Championship 2016 / Albania

European Championship game against Romania

This article covers the Albanian national team at the 2016 European Football Championship in France . For Albania, which had qualified as second in the group, it was the first time they had entered a European Championship finals.

qualification

Albania qualified for the European Championship in Group I , the only group of five. The Albanians started qualifying with a surprising 1-0 win in Portugal, against which they had never previously won in five games. The Portuguese then won all games, including the second leg in Albania with a goal in stoppage time, which meant that the Albanians lost for the first time in this qualifying round, so that the Portuguese were group winners as expected. The Albanians then lost the following home game against Serbia with two goals in stoppage time, but with a win on the last matchday in Armenia they qualified as second in the group. In total, coach Gianni De Biasi used 25 players, including Etrit Berisha , Lorik Cana and Taulant Xhaka in all eight games. Taulant Xhaka had only played his first international match in the first qualifying match against Portugal. In addition, Berat Djimsiti made his first appearance on September 4, 2015 against Denmark. No Albanian managed more than one qualifying goal. In addition to the games against the qualifying opponents, Albania also played twice against European Championship hosts France during this time, like the other group opponents . They achieved a 1-1 draw in Rennes on November 14, 2014, with Lorik Cana, who also has French citizenship, replacing Altin Lala as the record national player. In the second leg on June 13, 2015, they even managed a 1-0 win and thus for the first time a victory against the French, with Naser Aliji and Arbnor Fejzullahu playing their first international match. In the course of their qualification, Albania improved from 70th to 36th in the FIFA world rankings .

Games

All results from an Albanian point of view.

date	Venue	opponent	Result	Goal scorers
07.09.2014	Municipal Stadium of Aveiro Aveiro ( PRT )	Portugal	1: 0 (0: 0)	1-0 Bekim Balaj (52nd)
10/11/2014	Elbasan Arena , Elbasan	Denmark	1: 1 (1: 0)	1: 0 Ermir Lenjani (38th), 1: 1 Lasse Vibe (81st)
14/10/2014	Partizana Stadium , Belgrade ( SRB )	Serbia	3-0
03/29/2015	Elbasan Arena , Elbasan	Armenia	2: 1 (0: 1)	0: 1, 1: 1 Mergim Mavraj (4th, own goal, 77th), 2: 1 Shkelzen Gashi (81st)
04.09.2015	Telia Parken , Copenhagen ( DNK )	Denmark	0-0
07.09.2015	Elbasan Arena , Elbasan	Portugal	0: 1 (0: 0)	0: 1 Miguel Veloso (90. + 2 ′)
08/10/2015	Elbasan Arena , Elbasan	Serbia	0: 2 (0: 0)	0: 1 Aleksandar Kolarov (90. + 1 ′), 0: 2 Adem Ljajić (90. + 4 ′)
10/11/2015	Wasken Zarkissyan Republican Stadium , Yerevan ( ARM )	Armenia	3: 0 (2: 0)	1-0 Kamo Hovhannisjan (9th, own goal), 2-0 Berat Djimsiti (23rd), 3-0 Armando Sadiku (76th)

table

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Portugal	8th	7th	0	1	011: 500	+6	21st
2.	Albania	8th	4th	2	2	010: 500	+5	14th
3.	Denmark	8th	3	3	2	008: 500	+3	12
4th	Serbia	8th	2	1	5	008:130	−5	04th
5.	Armenia	8th	0	2	6th	005:140	−9	02

preparation

The Albanian team before the friendly against Austria

After the end of the qualification, the Albanians played a game against the Kosovar football team on November 13th, but not yet recognized by UEFA and FIFA, and on November 16th against Georgia . Both games ended in a 2-2 draw. March 2016 a test match on the 26th against European Football Cup was Austria in Vienna with 1: 2 lost, and on March 29 the Albanians won in Luxembourg against Luxembourg with 2: 0th With Milot Rashica, a newcomer was used. In the immediate preparation, test matches took place on May 29 against Qatar (3: 1) in Hartberg and on June 3 in Bergamo against European Championship participants Ukraine (1: 3).

Squad

The preliminary roster of 27 players was named on May 21. The final squad was named on May 31. The players were under contract with 21 clubs in 11 countries. Only FC Basel , FC Nantes and HNK Rijeka provided two players. Only two players were active in Albania.

No.	position	Surname	society	birth date	NM Sp.	NM gates	debut
1	goalkeeper	Etrit Berisha	Lazio Rome	10 Mar 1989	35	0	2012	3
12	goalkeeper	Alban Hoxha	FK Partizani Tirana	Nov 23, 1987	1	0	2015
23	goalkeeper	Orges Shehi	KF Skënderbeu Korça	25 Sep 1977	7th	0	2010
7th	Defense	Ansi Agolli	FK Qarabağ Agdam	Oct 11, 1982	61	2	2005	3
2	Defense	Andi Lila	PAS Ioannina	Feb 12, 1986	58	0	2007	2
6th	Defense	Frédéric Veseli	FC Lugano	Nov 20, 1992	3	0	2015	1
18th	Defense	Arlind Ajeti	Frosinone Calcio	25 Sep 1993	10	1	2014	2
4th	Defense	Elseid Hysaj	SSC Naples	0Feb. 2, 1994	20th	0	2013	3		1
15th	Defense	Mergim Mavraj	1. FC Cologne	0June 9, 1986	26th	3	2012	3		1
17th	Defense	Naser Aliji	FC Basel	Dec. 27, 1993	5	0	2015
22nd	midfield	Amir Abrashi	Sc freiburg	27 Mar 1990	18th	0	2013	3		1
20th	midfield	Ergys Kaçe	PAOK Thessaloniki	0July 8, 1993	16	2	2013	1		1
21st	midfield	Odise Roshi	HNK Rijeka	May 22, 1991	32	1	2011	3
5	midfield	Lorik Cana	FC Nantes	July 27, 1983	91	1	2003	2		1	1
3	midfield	Ermir Lenjani	FC Nantes	0Aug 5, 1989	19th	3	2013	3
9	midfield	Ledian Memushaj	Delfino Pescara 1936	0Dec. 7, 1986	14th	0	2010	2		1
8th	midfield	Migjen Basha	Como Calcio	0Jan. 5, 1987	19th	3	2013	1		1
13	midfield	Burim Kukeli	FC Zurich	Jan. 16, 1984	15th	0	2012	2		2
14th	midfield	Taulant Xhaka	FC Basel	28 Mar 1991	12	0	2014	2
19th	attack	Bekim Balaj	HNK Rijeka	Jan. 11, 1991	15th	1	2012	1
16	attack	Sokol Cikalleshi	Istanbul Basakşehir	July 27, 1990	19th	2	2014	1
11	attack	Shkelzen Gashi	Colorado Rapids	July 15, 1988	14th	1	2013	1
10	attack	Armando Sadiku	FC Vaduz	May 27, 1991	19th	5	2012	3	1

Coach: Gianni De Biasi 

Players who were only in the preliminary roster

Position.	Surname	society	birth date	International matches	Länderspiel- gates	debut
Defense	Amir Rrahmani	NCR split	Feb. 24, 1994	2	1	2014
Defense	Berat Djimsiti	Atalanta Bergamo	19 Feb 1993	7th	1	2015
midfield	Milot Rashica	Vitesse Arnhem	June 28, 1996	2	0	2016
midfield	Herolind Shala	Slovan Liberec	0Feb. 1, 1992	6th	0	2014

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Only games and goals that took place before the European Championship 2016 are counted here ( source ).
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s} One of which was a friendly game against Kosovo that was not officially rated.
3. ↑ After the yellow-red card for Cana

Finals

Lens Lyon Marseille Perros-Guirec

Venues (green = won, red = lost), quarters (blue)

At the draw for the six final groups on December 12, 2015, Albania was placed in Pot 4. Albania was drawn into group A with hosts France, Romania and Switzerland. Albania has a negative record against all three. Romania is the most frequent opponent with 16 games before the European Championship, only two games were won (1947 and 1948), three ended in a draw and eleven were lost. There were previously six games against France, two of which were friendly matches during European Championship qualification, the first being a draw and the first victory. The first four games in qualifications for the European Championships in 1992 and 2012 were lost. Against Switzerland there was only one draw after five defeats in six previous games - all in competitive games (qualifications for the World Cups in 1966 and 2014 and the 2004 European Championship).

In the first game against Switzerland there was a brother duel between Taulant Xhaka, who plays for Albania, and his brother Granit, who plays for Switzerland . The Albanians fell behind the Swiss after just five minutes and then lost captain and record national player Lorik Cana in the 36th minute with the first yellow-red card at this European Championship. Despite being outnumbered, they had better chances, especially towards the end of the second half, but couldn't use any. So they lost with 0: 1. In the second game against the hosts they were able to keep the 0-0 for a long time, but then had to accept the 0-1 in the 90th minute by substitute Antoine Griezmann and then another goal by Dimitri Payet in the sixth minute of stoppage time . In the last game against Romania, both of them needed a win to have a chance as one of the best third party to reach the last sixteen. The Albanians made it 1-0 through Armando Sadiku two minutes before half-time , who not only scored the first European Championship goal for Albania, but also gave his team their first victory in a European Championship game because the Romanians failed To score goal. The goal difference of this victory was not enough to get into the four best group thirds and reach the round of 16, a 3-0 would have been necessary. Despite the elimination, the team was enthusiastically received on their return to Albania.

With the bookmakers, Albania was listed as the biggest underdog to win the title with a rate of 301: 1.

Thanks to the victory over Romania, Albania gained 72 points in the FIFA world rankings , up five places. In addition, the players were issued diplomatic passports in recognition of this victory and the government paid out a bonus of one million euros.

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	France	3	2	1	0	004: 100	+3	07th
2.	Switzerland	3	1	2	0	002: 100	+1	05
3.	Albania	3	1	0	2	001: 300	−2	03
4th	Romania	3	0	1	2	002: 400	−2	01

Sat., June 11, 2016 at 3 p.m. in Lens
Albania	-	Switzerland	0: 1 (0: 1)
Wed., June 15, 2016 at 9:00 p.m. in Marseille
France	-	Albania	2: 0 (0: 0)
Sun. 19 June 2016 at 9:00 p.m. in Décines-Charpieu ( Lyon )
Romania	-	Albania	0: 1 (0: 1)

See also

• Albanian national soccer team / European championships

Web links

Commons : Albanian National Team at Euro 2016  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Portugal - Albania 0: 1
2. ↑ Denmark - Albania 0-0
3. ↑ Albania - France 1-0
4. ↑ FIFA World Ranking (August 14, 2014)
5. ↑ FIFA World Ranking (5th November 2015)
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Victory on the green table. The game was canceled when the score was 0-0.
7. ↑ Luxembourg - Albania 0: 2
8. ^ "Top scorer Salihi not in Albania's squad" , uefa.com
9. ^ Albania - squad , uefa.com
10. ↑ “UEFA EURO 2016 final draw” , uefa.com
11. ↑ "Granit Xhaka plays against his brother" , fifa.com
12. ↑ dpa: Great reception for Albania after leaving the EM. In: tz. June 23, 2016. Retrieved June 26, 2016 . 
13. ↑ Westfälische Nachrichten : Newcomers and long-running hits: Numbers - Numbers - Numbers: Albania is the biggest outsider among bookmakers , European Football Championship 2016, Paris, sid, June 10, 2016
14. ↑ Westfälische Nachrichten : Diplomatic Passports for Heroes , European Football Championship 2016 / People, June 21, 2016