TIRANA, Feb. 14 – Newly promoted Gjirokastra-based Luftetari are proving a real surprise in the Albanian Superliga this season as they currently rank fourth, leaving behind teams that have made history in Albanian football such as Tirana, Vllaznia and Teuta.
Luftetari beat title favourites Partizani 2-0, narrowly lost 2-1 away to Flamurtari and recently got an easy win against bottom-placed Korabi in the first three fixtures of the season’s second half following the winter break.
The southern club with little history in Albania’s top league dedicates its success to Serbian coach Mladen Milinkovic and its emerging players including Albania’s Dejvi Bregu and Mozambique striker Reginaldo who have scored five goals each this season.
The Serbian coach says being in the top fight of Albanian football continues to remain their key goal.
“Only when we have collected 36 to 37 points, we can think of another target. For the moment we are only thinking about the season start objective of remaining in the Superliga,” Milinkovic has told reporters.
The top three teams and the Albanian Cup winner play in European cups while the bottom two are demoted to the First Division.
“In football it is difficult to maintain a good shape for a long time and we should not forget that players can have different performances in different matches,” adds the coach.
Arjan Bellaj, a former Albanian international who grew up as a player with Luftetari, says the Serbian coach has a huge contribution to Luftetari’s success.
“The coach gets 100 percent from the players either when training or playing. He managed to single out the qualities of Bregu, Abazaj and Reginaldo, which is the trio every Albanian team would like to have,” he has said.
Luftetari, who currently have 28 points, 11 points behind third-placed Partizani and tailing leaders Kukes by 17 points, face a difficult encounter next Sunday on Oct. 19, when they travel away to six-times consecutive champions Skenderbeu who desperately need a win to narrow Kukesi’s four-point lead.
Northeastern Albania based Kukes seem on track for a Superliga title this season in their fifth attempt to make it after playing in the Superliga for only the past six years and finishing second four times. Their Croatian striker Pero Pejic is the Superliga top scorer with 13 goals followed by Partizani’s Italian-born Ghanaian striker Caleb Ekuban with nine goals and former Albanian international, Skenderbeu striker Hamdi Salihi with 8 goals.
The 22th week of the 10-team Albanian Superliga will also feature on Feb. 20 the Partizani-Tirana derby, a much-awaited fixture by fans, often marred by incidents and violence in the past few seasons.
Albanian football has reached milestones in the past few years with the national side’s Euro 2016 debut and Skenderbeu becoming the first Albanian club to make it to the Europa League group stage in 2015.
