Albania’s tough football qualifier with France

TIRANA, Aug 31 – Albania is getting ready for a tough match with group D leader of the Euro 2012 qualifier with France on Friday.
Albanian players have not excluded a good result like a draw or even more. They have insisted that in front of big teams their play gets better and they are more focused in the match.
Twenty-three Albanian players are trained by the Croatian coach, Josip Kuze, to face France and in a few days Luxembourg as well.
France wants to be in a dominant position in its European Championship qualifying group after its upcoming away games against Albania and Romania.
The 2000 European champion is top of Group D with 13 points from six games before it visits Albania on Friday and Romania on Tuesday. Belarus is one point behind having played a game more.
“We are aware of the stakes,” France goalkeeper Hugo Lloris said. “Those are two important matches that will perhaps help us get closer to qualifying.
“We will play those two matches to take six points, even though we realize it will be difficult.”
Albania and Romania have eight points each and still have a chance to qualify, but they are up against a France side high on confidence after an unbeaten run of 11 matches.
“France is the favorite in this group,” Albania defender Lorik Cana told the French federation website. “They should logically finish in first place even though I didn’t think they would lose so many points against Belarus. That doesn’t help us since Belarus is our direct rival.”
Albania is still undefeated at home where it beat Belarus and Luxembourg and drew with Bosnia-Herzegovina.
“Albania always wants to beat France because that would be a feat for them,” France coach Laurent Blanc said. “It’s up to us to be careful.”
Blanc has mostly relied on the pair of center backs formed by Philippe Mexes and Adil Rami to anchor the defense in this qualifying campaign.
But AC Milan defender Mexes is recovering from a knee injury and is therefore not available while Valencia defender Rami is suspended for the Albania match.
France is also missing Paris Saint-Germain defender Mamadou Sakho, who picked up a hamstring injury.
That gives Blanc very little choice at center back. Tottenham defender Younes Kaboul and Barcelona defender Eric Abidal are most likely to lead the defense in Albania as both started in the friendlies against Chile three weeks ago and against Poland in June.
“We mustn’t let them play and get more confident,” France midfielder Yohan Cabaye said. “It will be important to hold the ball and quickly show them that they have no chance.”
France midfielder Samir Nasri wants national coach Laurent Blanc to talk to him face to face rather than make remarks about him to the press, the Manchester City star told France Football in an interview that will appear on Tuesday.
At a press conference on August 10, Blanc offered journalists a frank opinion on how Nasri had been performing for the France team. “He must do better because he has the ability to do better,” said Blanc. “I expect more from him. We have shown great confidence in him, and he must return that confidence.”
“You could say that he rates me. But saying this in public is not going to help things improve,” said Nasri.
France travels to Romania on September 6 and it will be two days more in Albania even after Friday’s match. France currently tops Euro 2012 qualifying Group D by a point from Belarus and also has a game in hand.