Albania compete against Poland on Sunday in a tie where both nations will be desperate to claim the three points. Poland have beat Albania in all three meetings between the countries, including a dominant 1-0 victory in March.
Albania
Albania hold the second place position at the moment, having picked up seven points from four games. To achieve the goal of competing at the European Championships, it is vital that Albania defeat the teams that they should be beating. They have successfully done that so far, winning 2-0 against Moldova and 3-2 versus the Faroe Islands. However this week, they have displayed their ability to halt the larger nations, as they held the Czech republic to a 1-1 draw, despite only having one shot all game.
This level of resilience is admirable and they will need to display similar character this weekend, but to only have one shot and not lose is quite lucky, so the overall performance in the attacking third will have to improve significantly. Although three points is vital to Albania, I believe they would happily take a draw, which would keep them in second place for now.
Poland
Fernando Santos has struggled when on the road with Poland during this qualifying campaign and their last match away to Moldova was rather shocking. Despite taking a two goal lead before half-time, Poland let the lead slip entirely and the hosts completed the comeback, winning 3-2. This was a game that Polska simply had to win.
Furthermore, their 2-0 victory over last placed Faroe Islands wasn’t convincing either and even with the creative star, Piotr Zielinski, and the prolific strike partnership of Arkadiusz Milik and Robert Lewandowski, it took until the 73rd minute for the breakthrough thanks to a penalty, with the latter securing a brace. Poland need to improve on every aspect of their game if they are to defeat Albania, but if they continue this run of underwhelming performances, they will struggle.
Verdict?
Albania struggled versus the Czech Republic this week, despite the result and Poland are also a side that aren’t playing their best football at the minute. Neither side will want to lose the game, therefore we should see a close encounter.
The final prediction is Albania 1-1 Poland.
