The blue-yellows lost to the Albanian national team for the first time in history
The Albanian national team beat in Prague the national team of Ukraine in the opening match of the Nations League group stage, achieved the 28th victory in its history in an away match. The blue-yellows lost to Albania for the first time and became the 21st team that the Balkan team beat away.
The victory over Ukraine was only the 28th away win for the Albanian national team. The Albanians have won away more than once against Germany and San Marino – three times each, Andorra, Romania and Moldova – twice each. Albania has one away win each against Portugal, Greece, Serbia, Norway, Belarus, Hungary, Luxembourg, Malta, Israel, Liechtenstein, Armenia, Kazakhstan, the Faroe Islands, Montenegro, Qatar and now against Ukraine.
Albania needed seven matches to defeat Ukraine. In the previous six, the blue-yellows had won five times and drawn one.
Albania scored more than a goal in a game against the Ukrainian team for the second time in history. The first time was in October 2005 in Dnipro as part of the 2006 World Cup qualifiers – a 2:2 draw.
Ukraine played a lackluster first half in the nominally home match of the first round, which took place in Prague. Right after the break, Serhiy Rebrov’s team managed to open the scoring, but the Albanians quickly equalized after a corner, and then scored a second goal after a counterattack.
With three points, Albania leads Group B1 with Georgia, while the Ukrainian team is third thanks to a better goal difference than the Czech Republic.
In the next round, Rebrov’s team will play the Czech Republic on September 10. The match, like the match with Albania, will take place in Prague.
Source: Sportarena
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