“I feel Albanian”, Reja: Time to dominate and win, I put “pressure” on parents

After these two challenges, the red and black team will play a friendly with Estonia at the “Air Albania” stadium on June 13.

The national team coach, Edoardo Reja spoke at the press conference, touching on several topics: from the opponents, what he expects from his sons, absences, offensive ward and the triumph of Rome in the final of the Conference League in “Air Albania” and excellent organization of this event in our country.

“We expect high level performance because they will be relevant to our objective. We have made two positive friendlies, to continue this way forward with high level matches.

It is important to be physically well, as there are problems at the end of the championship. The one who will go down on the field must give 100%, we can not risk because these are two very important matches that we must win at any cost.

The team has values, but we should not show lack of concentration, as it is important for the group to win. The technical-tactical aspect also has its importance. I have a lot of players. I am very confident that the boys will play very well.

Did you see Rome in the Conference League final? They have an expert coach like Mourinho, waited for their moment and won. These are matches where it is very important to appear smart, to use our head. The boys know the importance of these matches, those who will go down on the field will give 100%. I trust the team. Psychologically we are in good shape.

Attacks? The team needs to have balance, then we need strikers who finalize. We have valuable strikers, they are scoring, but the part of the defense is also important. A footballer does not win the game alone. Still, attackers are incredibly important. The attackers are physically well, they are in shape, I wish they score in the national team as well.

Strakosha? He is at the end of the contract, he is going through a special situation, so he asked me to leave him at home, as an injury could bring him problems related to the market. We have Berisha, who has played recently. We have Kastrati, we also have Selman who has done well in Turkey, he is growing. We have a lot of players.

We also have players like Asllani, who has become a starter and has developed a very good season. He is 20 years old and is in negotiations with big clubs. It does not matter the age, it does matter that the boys train together. I am following other young players, also those of Albania U21.

Lack of Manaj? We talked to everyone, I also talked to Broja. He is with Covid, he is at home and I hope to recover him for the match with Israel. The same thing with Manaj, he had problems with his shoulder. Who has not come has problems. I also talked to Laçi and Baren, they are injured.

I have a lot of faith in this team, we have grown, but we have to take the final step. Now there is no alibi, we have to play well, these matches will show the true values ​​of the Albanian national team.

Iceland? There are always problems, we have made long-distance transfers before, but we have to go there and in Israel, they are physically strong teams, especially Iceland. Israel is a more technical and faster team. We will prepare these two matches well. We are ready, as we have faced similar teams before. We played well against Spain, we are growing.

We suffered at the beginning when I started work, we were at 60-70% of capacity, but we are reaching 90% of ourselves. But, there are difficulties to reach 100%. To see, it would be fantastic to win the group, a motive of pride for us, the staff, the player, the Federation and Albania.

We have to dominate, this is how matches are won, but we have to be careful with every opponent. Of course we have values, but we have to be very focused on the field, prepare well and be ready for the difficulties of duels. There are no easy matches. We must give everything, be careful, be humble and value every opponent equally. We need high intensity and concentration. When we took matches lightly, we always had negative performances.

Did I rejoice at Roma’s victory as former Lazio coach? Of course, since I am Italian, then in Rome is also Kumbulla. I’m sorry he did not play. Lazio fans forgive me, but I was glad that an Italian team won. We saw a beautiful example, the losing team went to the fans and was applauded by them. It is important to accept the result in football. It was a beautiful football show.

The stadium was excellent, the organization was fantastic. FSHF did a good job in organizing the match. I was a little afraid of incidents between fans, but we showed the world – I feel Albanian too – that we are capable of organizing such events. Excellent promotion of Albania. Pride, I hope to organize more events in the future.

There are no players we are not following, there are many young people that we do not leave out of the spotlight, we monitor them all. I followed the players of 2009, I also talked to their parents to convince them to choose Albania, but they must have the desire to play with the national team. I put a lot of pressure on the parents, as they command, the parent decides for his child.

It is time to take revenge on Iceland. We restarted from the 4-2 victory against Iceland in Elbasan, there the enthusiasm returned. There we lost by half a mistake. We are growing, but there are no matches won without playing. We lost a few games for, we need to change this mentality. We must always play as if we are facing the best team in the world. This is the problem we usually have. All the teams are organized, the coaches are all prepared. Compliments also to the police and security forces for managing the Conference League final“, Declared Reja.

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