The national football teams of Albania and Serbia played to a 0:0 draw in Tirana, in the first round of World Cup qualifiers.
The match saw few chances, with the most significant moment occurring at the end of the first half when Albania missed a penalty. Serbia’s best chance fell to Aleksandar Mitrović, but he failed to find the net.
Eagles’ goalkeeper saved a penalty and prevented a fiasco
Fear tied the Eagles’ legs. Not fear of the stands, of the hellish atmosphere in Tirana, but rather the apprehension of making a mistake, of committing a blunder that would be costly.
And in such a boring, uninspired game of passing to the nearest player, then backward, Đorđe Petrović, who saved a penalty against an equally poor Albania, was all that was worthwhile. Thanks to the brilliant save by the goalkeeper, Serbia returns from Tirana with a lucky point from their first World Cup qualifying match – 0:0.
We knew that Serbia had a problem with creativity in midfield and couldn’t contend with Austria or Denmark there, but playing in “reverse” for 90 minutes against Albania was not expected. It’s tragic that the red-and-black rival is a seriously limited, weak team, and this was a match that had to and could have been won. If there had been more courage. And, only because of Petrović, it didn’t end in a fiasco.
One excellent header by Aleksandar Mitrović in the second half, which Strakosha saved with a parade, is too little for a favorable impression for the qualifying premiere. The end of the race is far off, it has just begun, but it already looks much more like the struggle of the previous European Championship cycle than a flying start towards Qatar.
The first half, until the very last minute, followed the “where were you – nowhere, what did you do – nothing” system. This applies to both teams. Albania was expected to attack from the start, driven by the hurricane support from the stands, but Serbia managed to gain possession, bring it under control, and slowly anesthetize the commotion around the field.
The only problem was that Serbia didn’t know what to do with the ball either. The fear of making a mistake among players of both teams was much greater than the desire to do something concrete in attack. And there were quite a few mistakes. Mitrović, Aleksa Terzić, and the almost tragic figure of the first half, Lazar Samardžić, couldn’t get a hold of the ball. Luckily, Albania showed absolutely nothing either.
Perhaps paradoxically, as the game progressed, instead of the Serbs becoming more relaxed on the field, it was the Albanians who did, and they increasingly started winning clear balls, creating problems on the wings, although with only two long-range shots, which Petrović easily stopped. Serbia didn’t do anything either, except for Andrija Živković’s shot from distance, which resulted in a corner, and a solid attempt by Dušan Vlahović from a free kick.
And then, in the last minute – a crescendo. Samardžić carelessly, in an attempt to clear the ball from the penalty area, “shot” Hysaj’s leg, and referee Massa immediately pointed to the penalty spot. The uproar in the stands was immense; it seemed they could collapse. However, Đorđe Petrović was in charge of the collapse, as he saved Rey Manaj’s penalty and dashed the hosts’ hopes of going into halftime with a lead.
The game opened up a bit in the continuation. Albania tried to gain something by pressing the last line, then with long balls, but Nikola Milenković played like a true boss in Serbia’s defense.
In attack, two rapid flashes: Mitrović’s header, saved by Strakosha, then Samardžić’s shot wide of the post. Immediately after that, Serbia again retreated into uninspired play, playing it safe to the nearest player…
Substitutions brought nothing either; Stojković gave up on the idea of “pushing” Aleksandar Katai onto the field in the final minutes, even though the Crvena Zvezda midfielder was warming up. In the end, when referee Massa indicated six minutes of added time, hardly anyone was happy; this match did not deserve such an “encore.”
In the end, no one was happy, no one was satisfied…
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Source: Mozzartsport Photo: AP