Kosovans offer warm welcome to our ‘great ally’
IT IS safe to say that England will never have never known a welcome like it.
Such is the sense of gratitude felt for the British government’s role in the 1999 NATO bombing raids which brought independence to this fledgling country, ‘Welcome and Respect’ banners featuring the poppy and the English flag adorned the capital’s streets this weekend.
The Kosovo squad have even given up their usual hotel to England and checked into a more modest one up in the hills, ensuring their visitors enjoy optimum comfort.
But the sense of anticipation the hosts feels about the arrival of their perceived liberators will extend to a no-holds-barred approach to the game against Gareth Southgate’s players in the 13,000-capacity Fadil Vokrri national stadium this afternoon.
This might be a dead rubber but national team assistant manager Muharrem Sahiti has told the Mail on Sunday that the side will approach things with the same free spirit that saw them lose 5-3 in Southampton, two months ago. It is the fixture the entire nation has been anticipating for months.
‘This will be a game only for pleasure,’ Sahiti said. ‘When we don’t have the pressure to get a result, we will give a very good performance. We will be trying to play freely. We won’t be dropping back defensively.
‘The motivation speaks for itself. You don’t have to tell the players what it means to play against England. We want to show our great ally how we play. We know who has supported us throughout the years.’
There is no disguising that Raheem Sterling, back in the squad and hoping to put the Joe Gomez controversy in the past, is the player the Kosovans fear, though even he was spoken of reverentially last night.
‘For us it is not good news for sure,’ said Kosovo coach
Bernard Challandes.
‘It is double bad news because if Sterling plays he is one of the best in his position in the world and we saw in the first game the trouble with Sterling. Secondly, if I am Sterling I think in this game I must show good behaviour.
‘But if Sterling has so much space it is impossible to stop him because of what he did in that game in England.
‘He ran for 460 metres with high intensity. Only as a team can we find a solution. Or we break his leg! But that is not our style. We are too nice! We are a team who are very, very, very nice but it is not a problem if we play together.’
It will be an atmosphere like none that the English side have experienced in this campaign. Demand for tickets was so great that the Kosovo FA’s system crashed when they went on sale and all had gone within 15 minutes.
Challandes admitted to being ‘a little bit afraid’ after some of England’s scorelines in the group, including the 7-0 victory over Montenegro.
‘Incredible!’ he reflected. But his own side’s performances in Group A have endeared them to this small, fledgling nation and Sahiti said the 5-3 defeat in the reverse fixture had engendered more self-belief than any other.
‘It served us more than all our matches,’ Sahiti said of a game in which Kosovo scored inside a minute, shipped five but netted twice more in the second half.
‘That second half in England has made us believe that we are a team who can face anyone. It gave us the signal you can do something against any opponent.’
England must beware Sheffield Wednesday forward Atdhe Nuhiu, who scored in a 2-1 away loss to the Czech Republic in midweek, and Huddersfield Town full back Florent Hadergjonaj, the team’s best player in that match.
Injury to striker Vedat Muriqi, who plays for Fenerbahce, is a major blow.
‘We have made huge strides in the past three years,’ said Sahiti. ‘We are a small country but we have a big heart.’