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Let's talk about  THE TEAM Goalkeepers 1 Berisha (Lazio) 12 Shehi 23 Hoxha Defenders 2 Lila 4 Hyman (Napoli) 5 Lorik Cana (Nantes) 6 Veseli 7 Agolli 15 Mavraj 17 Aliji 18 Ajeti Midfielders 3 Lenjani 8 Basha 9 Memushaj 13 Kukeli 14 Taulant Xhaka (Basel) 20 Kace 21 Roshi 22 Abrashi Forwards 10 Armando Sadiku (FC Vaduz) 11 Gashi (Colorado Rapids) 16 Cikalleshi 19 Balaj Albania will be without  Man U ace Adnan Januzaj  Wednesday striker Atdhe Nihiu  And Stoke star Xherdan Shaqiri Not for nothing does the Albanian flag have a two-faced eagle on it. Like 15 million other exiles, these three Kosovar race traitors would rather live ANYWHERE but Albania, although I think we can all appreciate the humour in Our Adnan choosing Belgium which these days is pretty much the same if not worse. The team will also be travelling without Mother Teresa and John Belushi. Two othger ALbanians who could live there but dont are Faith from Buffy the Vampire Slayer  Curry house heiress 'Tikka' Masiela Lusha  THEIR CHANCES Encouragingly, Albania have been ranked alongside former cup (and shirt) lifters Denmark and Greece by the analysts at Goldman Sachs, giving them mathematically zero chance of winning the thing and only 10/3 odds to escape Group A.  I think they can definitely snaffle 4 points threre against famed bottlers France, Romania and Swiss. I know it! THEIR PAST Albania was once Europe's poorest country, taking over from Portugal in 1992. But times change, and with Moldova's president under arrest for suddenly coming in to $1bn a couple of years ago, Albania is probably only third or fourth. Tirana even boasts a steep concrete slab you can climb. THEIR JOURNEY Albania had an eventful qualifying campaign. There were two highlights: beating Portugal 1-0 in their first game. And despite waging a war fairly recently, nobody spotted that Serbia and Albania had been put in the same group. The Balkans are an hospitable place and the Serbs welcomed their Albanian cousins to the Dobra Kobra stadium with a traditional stoning of the away team bus and then ceremonially burned a NATO flag in their honour during the warm-up. After kick off they threw flares and other explosives at the Albanian players when they were taking corners (when the players were taking corners I mean). Proud English ref Martin Atkinson saw there was a real chance of ethno-religious conflict and quickly suspended the game so it could take place without interruption. Then a drone appeared with a flag on it, there was a pitch invasion and someone hit Lorik Cana with a plastic chair before eating a whole plate of knuckle sandwiches https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC0gd4r6QQQ UEFA basically said ALbania were asking for it, serve them right for dressing that way and awarded Serbia a 3-0 win while deducting points for appearances' sake. This so reminds me an Albanian joke: A villager complained to his fellows that someone stole his cow last night, and they all start blaming him why he let that happen. The grieving villager listen to them and added: So, all the fault is mine, but the one who actually stole the cow is not to be blamed? As neither the Albanian nor the Serbian football associations were satisfied with the UEFA ruling, they both filed further appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.[11] On 10 July 2015 the Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected the appeal filed by the Serbian FA, and upheld in part the appeal filed by the Albanian FA: the match was deemed to have been forfeited by Serbia with 0–3 and Serbia were, in addition, deducted three points. The victory and accompanying three points awarded by the CAS to Albania proved decisive – they qualified for the finals in second place with 14 points. The Serbs were fuming. When arent they though, and tbqh even if they been able to keep the victory, they would have still finished fourth with ten points and failed to qualify. In fact, Albania's qualification came at the expense of Denmark, who finished in third with 12 points and failed to qualify after losing a playoff to Sweden. So Albania don’t really have the right to be there but it’s quite nice that they are. Breath Ray fucked around with this message at 14:00 on Jun 7, 2016 |
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Jun 7, 2016 02:37
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 07:24 |
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One more reason to keep an eye on albania this month
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Jun 7, 2016 02:43
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straight up brolic posted:i thought this was a joke about the streaming website, but apparently this is a real person Nice bloke but averaging a goal every six games won't get him into Austria's squad so now he is making eyes at newly formed Kosovo
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Jun 7, 2016 02:53
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Kurtofan posted:John Belushi was Albanian? That's right kurtofan. But tbf his family left when it was pretty bad there. Here are some snapshots of life as recently as 1992:   
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Jun 7, 2016 09:07
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vivisectvnv posted:hysaj had an excellent season for napoli op shoulf be bolded Sure, will do. Can you tell us more? Is he fast slow a diver a fascist etc. I can then seamlessly weave it into the op
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Jun 7, 2016 13:49
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They've got his grandson in the back four!
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Jun 7, 2016 14:09
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Which one? Its a squad of 23 remember haha
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Jun 7, 2016 17:28
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Gigi Galli posted:Seriously though, nice post, and great pictures. Thanks! Think we're slightly veering away from football and into the arena of family/relationships but good to see a stonking babe by the green lagoon photographed by flj, the BIG HEAD goon! I hope to add more detail on Albania's players etc or at least the bolded ones (the ones with hair can go gently caress themselves ha) but let me finish with a plea for someone to write an op for romania. You can basically copy paste this one for all I care but I drew the roms in the office sweepstake and it would be a massive conflict of interest if I did two ops for teams in the same group. And a waste of time given neither will progress. 
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Jun 8, 2016 12:09
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 07:24 |
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So close and yet so far.
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Jun 27, 2016 14:15
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