In last night's match between Albania and Croatia in the second round of the Europa League group stage, the two sides shook hands 2-2. After the match, Albania manager Silvinho was interviewed and shared his insights on the match.
Silvinho began by expressing his respect for the Croatian team, "You have to respect Croatia, they have been very good in the last few years and have incredible players." He admitted that Albania faces a huge challenge against such a strong team.
Speaking about the course of the game, Silvinho said that the game was difficult to generalize, "The whole game was difficult to analyze. We played very well in the first half, but in the second half we went through a difficult period of 15 to 20 minutes." Nonetheless, he insisted that a draw was a fair result at the end of the game, "But at the end of the game, we deserved the draw."
Silvinho also recalled some of the key moments in the game, especially the changes in the second half, "The game changed a lot in the second half and I think our substitution strategy was effective." He gave examples of tactical choices in the final stages of the game, "For example, in the last ten minutes we had to choose between Broa and Daku. We chose Daku because he was stronger and scrappy, while Broa needed more space to play."
Finally, Silvinho summed up the result and expressed his expectations for future matches, "It's hard to analyze every detail of the whole game, but in the last minutes of the match we had a real chance to win the game. With more time, we might have been able to do more."
