The captain of the Albanian national team Ardian Ismajli, as part of the scheduled pre-match press conference, talked about what he expects from the match against the Ukrainian national team in the final round of the group stage of the Nations League, which will take place today in Tirana.
Ardian Ismajli— We know that our tournament position is such that in the fight for the final first place, not everything depends on us, but also on the result of the match between the Czech Republic and Georgia. But we will step onto the field only for the victory, we have no other way. I hope we are lucky and we finish first. We need to win, do our job, and then wait for the result of the parallel match.
— What rating would you give Artem Dovbik?
— There are no easy opponents, especially in Serie A: all forwards there are physically strong and fast. We know the qualities of Dovbik, but we are not afraid of him. Moreover, in all the recent matches, we acted very well in defense. We have analyzed the entire Ukrainian team as a whole and hope to play against them as well as possible.
But defense always has room for improvement, especially when dealing with very strong forwards, both in heading and foot play.
— How important will the support of the stands be for you?
— The strength of the "Air Albania" stands is such that in the last two years we have conceded only one goal here and suffered only one defeat — against Georgia. The advantage of having our fans is extremely great. You saw for yourself on Saturday, in the match against the Czech Republic, the support we had. I am sure that in the upcoming match, this support will be even greater. It will definitely put pressure on the opponent. I hope we repay our fans with a victory.
— You scored against Ukraine in the first match against this team. Do you expect to repeat such success?
— My primary duty is to work on defense. But if a chance arises to score in attack, why not? I hope our attackers will fulfill their primary task and score against Ukraine. The team is important, the victory is important, and who scores does not matter.
— How should the game against Ukraine be played?
— We need to score goals, that's football. We defended well in the previous matches but stumbled in attack. I am sure that in the game against Ukraine, all the guys will do their utmost and there will be goals. This is the most important match for us in the group. We will do everything to finish first in it.
Alexander POPOV
