TIRANA, May 31 – Coach Didier Deschamps expects a tough fixture against Albania on June 15 in the hosts second group stage match after the national side held Les Bleus to a 1-1 draw in Rennes and beat them at home.
In an interview with the Albanian Football Association ahead of the Euro 2016 kick off, Deschamps says the two friendlies against Albania in the Euro qualifying campaign showed Albania is no surprise.
“We are hopeful of finding a way to tackle the problems we had with Albania during the qualifying campaign. If a team gets four out of 6 points in two matches we cannot pretend is was only a surprise,” said Deschamps.
Albania is making its first ever participation in a major football tournament after a historic direct qualification in a tough group which also featured Portugal, Denmark and Serbia.
Asked about the favourites in Group A which also feature Switzerland and Romania, Deschamps said “the group is homogeneous and analysts place France as a favourite team also considering the fact that they are the hosts. But we strongly respect our opponents and I don’t believe we are advantaged because we are having our opening match against a tough and courageous team such as Romania.”
“We have studied Albania’s playing style well and we know their characteristics, their strengths and their weaknesses,” he said.
Speaking about De Biasi’s job with the national side, the former French international said the Italian coach has applied the best of the Italian football school in the Albania team and achieved the success with insufficient resources.
Albania got the better of France in the two centralised friendlies played in conjunction with the UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying competition. They drew the first encounter 1-1 in Rennes before winning 1-0 at home in Elbasan thanks to a goal from Ergys Kaà§e. France had won the four previous meetings – all UEFA European Championship qualifiers – with a goal difference of +10, says Europe’s football governing body, UEFA.
Coach De Biasi has named the final 23-man squad leaving out Vitesse attacker Milot Rashica and Atalanta defender Berat Djimsiti from the preliminary team.
