June 16 – Albania’s 2-1 defeat to Italy was part of a learning curve at major tournaments, the country’s manager Sylvinho said.
Amid a rambunctious atmosphere in Westfalen, the Albanians got off to a dream start with the fastest goal in European championship history through Nedim Bajrami’s strike after 23 seconds, but Italy responded in imperious fashion, dictating play from the midfield to strike twice with goals from Alessandro Bastoni and Nicolo Barella in the space of five minutes.
Sylvinho, Albania’s manager and a former Arsenal player, said it was part of life at major finals for smaller sides.
“I used to play, when I was a player, in the Champions League,” explained Sylvinho. “I know what was expected of me against Real Madrid, Milan and Juventus, but when you are not used to playing this kind of competition, you have no idea what you are expecting.
“Once you have done the first match, there is no problem with the emotions anymore.”
Albania had no way back into the match after Italy took the lead. Luciano Spalletti’s team applied all the experience ingrained in the DNA of champions to see out the match comfortably, even if Albanian substitute Rey Manaj had a last-minute opportunity to level the score and rescue a point.
“It’s only our second time here in the Euros,” said Slyvinho.
“We have young players, very good players, but it’s not easy, they are a very strong side, candidates for the title. You need to take the game to the opposition, that is how we prepared the match. We tried to stop Barella and Jorginho from playing. It is not a case of me saying to drop off – if you go toe-to-toe you can concede five or six times in a half.”
At Euro 2016, Albania, on debut, exited the tournament in the first round but registered their first three points with a 1-0 victory against Romania in their final group game. Sylvinho’s team might struggle to improve on that result with matches against Croatia and Spain coming up in Group B, considered the tournament’s group of death.
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