Goal helps soothe Albania’s historic pain

LYON: Albania never doubted their coach, and that faith finally paid off. The tiny Balkan nation made history by beating Romania 1-0 at the European Championship

LYON: Albania never doubted their coach, and that faith finally paid off. The tiny Balkan nation made history by beating Romania 1-0 at the European Championship on Sunday for their first ever win in an international competition.

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They did so by giving one more committed, all-in team effort that manager Giovanni De Biasi was convinced would eventually prove to be a winning formula. “Tonight we won with heart,” De Biasi said after the match. “We played with our head, with mental strength. This is a very generous team. They try to give as much as they can.”

Now coach and players must wait until the group phase of Euro 2016 finishes on Wednesday to see if three points are enough to qualify for the round of 16 as one of the top four third-place sides.

Even if Albania fails to advance, Sunday’s victory was a momentous feat for a nation that has no footballing tradition and spent nearly half of the last century in international isolation.

While the large contingent of Albanians in the Stade de Lyon relished the victory, celebrations erupted back home. In Tirana and in neighbouring Kosovo, where half the squad has their origins, fans took to the streets waving red-and-black national flags. Firecrackers were lit, cars sounded their horns for hours and people danced to folk music.

Albania Prime Minister Edi Rama joined in by writing “Goooooooooool....,” on his Twitter page after Armando Sadiku scored the winner. “I was very pleased with our performance, and pleased we could give such a big joy to our fans,” De Biasi said.

Rarely is a team strengthened when they fail to score a single goal in back-to-back losses. But instead of wavering, De Biasi’s bunch found inspiration after resisting with 10 men in a 1-0 loss to Switzerland and holding France scoreless until the 90th minute before falling 2-0.

De Biasi made those potentially demoralising defeats into the foundation of Albania’s biggest sporting moment.

The first gutsy decision he made was to not put Lorik Cana, with a record 92 caps, back into his starting lineup after he was suspended against France. Instead, De Biasi stuck with his replacement, 22-year-old Arlind Ajeti. Ajeti came through with a commanding display by anchoring its defence.

“It was a very difficult choice for me,” De Biasi said. “I didn’t want to change much of the team that played against France. I asked Loric to sacrifice.”

DIPLOMATIC PASSPORTS

The players on Albania’s national team will be given diplomatic passports in recognition of their win over Romania . “They are ambassadors without passports, but the premier will supply (diplomatic) passports to them,” Albanian soccer federation president Armand Duka said on Monday.

Albania coach Giovanni de Biasi, an Italian who has also received Albanian citizenship, broadcast a three-minute video showing Albania’s hardships under the former communist regime, their difficult transitory post-communist period and also the Kosovo war which prompted NATO to intervene, saying “that’s how we have been treated.”

But he ended the video showing fans celebrating.

“This is what we are,” De Biasi said. “Due to you, Europe considers us as equal. Thank you.”