Still emerging

While not exactly enjoying a period of runaway triumph, the last four years have nevertheless confirmed Albania’s continuing emergence as a team not to be taken lightly. Hard to break down and stubbornly tough to beat, an embarrassing defeat for one of Europe’s elite always seems to be on the cards – if not actually yet dealt. Norway, in the EURO 2000™ qualifying tournament, and both Germany and England, in the 2002 FIFA World Cup campaign, have all struggled enough against the world’s 94th ranked team to assume it is just a matter of time.

Glory against Greece
Success in football is, of course, relative and Albania’s fifth-place finish (out of six) in their EURO 2000™ qualifying group was their best ever in a major competition. Not good enough, however, to keep Astrit Hafizi, in a job – the president of the Albanian federation unhappy that the coach had failed to build a team good enough for fourth place. Hafizi’s successor, Medin Zhega, then pulled off a first ever competitive win against their neighbours Greece – a victory that delighted the Albanian Prime Minister so much he dished out £7,000-a-man bonuses to the team - but, with Zhega’s tenure characterised by a string of defeats, he too was forced to fall on his sword. The present coach, Sulejman Demollari is still awaiting his first win (or, come to that, his first draw).

Norway shaken
The highlight of Albania’s EURO 2000™ Group Two qualifying campaign was an impressive 2-2 draw in Norway, the eventual group winners only snatching a point with two goals in the last nine minutes after Albania has gone 2-0 up through Alban Bushi and Igli Tare. Albania also managed draws against Greece (0-0 at home) and Latvia (0-0 away and 3-3 at home – courtesy of a last-minute equaliser by Devi Muka) and jumped off the bottom of the table by leapfrogging Georgia with a 2-1 win in the final match in the group in Tirana, the goals coming from Altin Rraklli and Bledar Kola.

Narrow defeats
Albania’s other five matches all ended in defeat, although their home set-backs were narrow - Norway’s winner in a 2-1 defeat came just seven minutes from time and Slovenia’s in a 1-0 win came via the penalty spot. On their travels Albania lost 1-0 in Georgia and 2-0 in both Greece and Slovenia.

Bad start
Zhega’s odds of guiding Albania to a better finish in World Cup qualifying were long indeed as they had been drawn in a much more difficult group that included both Germany and England. They started badly, with a 2-1 defeat in Finland, but after Ervin Fakaj scored a late goal to seal the historic 2-0 victory over Greece in Tirana they stood ahead of England in the Group Nine table. However, sadly for them, their remaining six games garnered just two more goals and no points. They lost 2-1 and 2-0 to Germany, 3-1 and 2-0 to England, 1-0 in Greece and 2-0 at home to Finland.

Germany stunned
However, there was, initially at least, much to encourage the Albanians as they scared the living daylights out of Germany and put the wind up England. Against Germany in Leverkusen, Kola had shocked the former world champions by scoring to make it 1-1 and with the home crowd booing and jeering their team the Germans had to wait until just two minutes from time to grab a winner and spare their blushes.

Equaliser ruled out
The 3-1 defeat by England might appear to have been a comfortable outing for their opponents but it was anything but. The Albanians had been largely untroubled by the visitors until Michael Owen scored in the 73rd minute. England looked to have made it secure when Paul Scholes added a second five minutes from time. However, right at the death Rraklli pulled one back then had an equaliser controversially ruled out for offside before Andy Cole grabbed a third for England in injury time. The reverse match in Newcastle ended 2-0 but England’s second came just two minutes from time.

First goal awaited
The Albanians’ relative purple patch could not, however, save Zhega, who was replaced by Demollari for the last two games of the campaign – against Finland and in England. He took the helm promising a more attacking style of play. He is, however, still awaiting his first goal.