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Albania national football team
Albania national football team, Soccer team profile information, photo, images, video and Overview, Here you can find statistics about all the national football teams of the world, and the tournaments they play in. The Albania national football team is the national association football team of Albania and it has represented the Albanian nation since 1946.
Manager: Gianni De Biasi
Association: Albanian Football Association
Confederation: UEFA (Europe)
Captain: Lorik Cana
Head coach: Gianni De Biasi
Arenas/Stadiums: Elbasan Arena, Qemal Stafa Stadium
Best result: never previously qualified
Leading scorer: all-time – Erjon Bogdani (18); current – Hamdi Salihi (11)
Most appearances: all-time – Lorik Cana (87); current – Lorik Cana (87)
Association formed: 1930
Nickname: Shqiponjat (The Eagles)
Where they play: Elbasani Arena, Elbasan
UEFA EURO 2016 will be Albania’s first major tournament and continues an upward curve under Italian coach Gianni De Biasi, who built on a promising 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign.
Albania’s introduction to the UEFA European Championship brought a famous win in a losing cause, a pattern that continued until UEFA EURO 2016 qualification. Having sat out the inaugural tournament, they achieved their first success in the competition against Denmark in the last 16 of the 1964 edition. A side led by perhaps the country’s greatest player, Panajot Pano, won 1-0 in Tirana, but the Danes had already done the damage with a 4-0 first-leg victory.
Four years later Albania again displayed their quality, albeit when already eliminated. They held West Germany 0-0 to deny them a finals place for the only time. Since then there has been only sporadic success, a 3-0 victory against Turkey in the run-up to the 1972 tournament and a memorable 3-1 win against Russia in 2003 the highlights. Albania recorded their best performance in UEFA EURO 2008 qualifying, collecting 11 points, but missed out on the finals; four years later, they finished second in their group behind Portugal to earn a first appearance.
Squad
Matches
Albania national football team
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