De Biasi comments on Albania's draw for the 2026 World Cup

The draw of the World Cup qualifiers has brought us back 10 years to one of the darkest matches in the history of our national team, that of Belgrade on October 14, 2014, which for the superstitious could only happen on a so-called Friday 13, or Black Friday.

Scenes of violence, monsters, shame, took place in the Belgrade stadium with the entry of the famous drone with the Autoktonus flag.

Apparently the origin called the natives. And yet, a very serious event for which we had to seek justice in the courts to get our right since then qualified for the first time in history in a European. It was the greatest gift that coach Giani de Biasi gave us, who today, 10 years later, at the end of the draw, reacts like this to Top Channel: "Oh God....from this point of view, it was a draw that I did not expect, after that that happened to us, but from a positive point of view it is something good since we qualified for the Europeans in those qualifiers and left Serbia behind".

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We really lost the second match in Elbasan, but it was the fans like your work that makes me believe even more because we were okay with 0-0 and I remember that I got very angry and shouted at the players a lot. Anyway, I hope you qualify for the 2026 World Cup. And I would gladly go to Belgrade...if they give me security guarantees".

How do you see the Albania-Serbia match today? How can you motivate boys after what they have seen, read and heard?

"First of all, dear Andy, you have to focus on all the matches, not just this one. But if we are going to talk specifically about this, this is not a match that requires any special motivation, on the contrary, we must prepare how to face the opponent from a technical point of view. On the other hand, all emotions that go beyond the football field must be kept under control."

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Is this group simpler than the one that qualified us for the 2016 European Championship?

"This group that Albania has is with 3 teams really, with England, Albania and Serbia as the other two teams are light years away from you and the other opponents, maybe they can take one point from the other. And for the sake of the truth, the match for qualification will be only between the two teams Albania and Serbia for the second place, since the first place for me is the country of England. Predicting who will be in front has many elements, the time the match will be played, how the players will be in that period and things like that."

Meanwhile, among the scenes of extreme violence in that match 10 years ago, the hit to the former Red and Black striker Bekim Balaj stands out.

"Anyway, as our former coach De Biasi also mentions, in the end it was worth it... we qualified for the European Championship", added De Biasi.