TipResumen

INTRODUCTION

In the previous qualifiers both teams were not successful, but while it is not a surprise for Scotland, however Albania played in the previous European Championship two years ago in France. Scotland's aim is to now break that unsuccessful run and finally qualify for a big competition. Albania on the other hand will aim to qualify for the European competition for the second time in a row. After the end of the last qualifiers, Scotland have played only friendly matches where they were not so successful, while Albania started the League of Nations with a win.



SCOTLAND

Scotland have failed to make the cut to any big competition for sometime now and it is a big doubt if they can make it to the next European Championships because they have been hardly impressive in their matches to date. It wasn't that bad in the previous qualifers for the World Cup in Russia as they finished third in the group with the same number of points as the second placed Slovakia. However the Slovaks was also not in the playoffs as they were the weakest second ranked teams. In their last match of the World Cup qualifiers they had a chance but they only played a draw with Slovenia and that killed off all of their hopes. After that they played six friendly matches and made only one win, which was a win over Hungary, while they lost five times and failed to scored a single goal. Last Friday they played a friendly with Belgium and were hammered by 4-0. They are having problems with injuries and will not be able to count on the likes of centre-backs McKenne and Hendry, and midfielder Cairney.



ALBANIA

Albania played in the last European Championships which was the biggest success they have achieved so far. They even managed to win one match in that competition but it was not enough for them to pass to the knockout stage as they were defeated twice. The fact they made it into the competition was a big success. They did not managed to make it to the World Cup in Russia this year as they had the likes of Spain and Italy in their group of qualifers. GThey finished third in the group with a big points difference over the other two teams. After that they have only played friendly matches where they managed to beat Turkey but they also suffered three defeats after that. They suffered defeats against the likes of Norway, Ukraine and even Kosovo. On Friday night they started the Leaguf of Nations with a howm win over Israel. That will no doubt give them a lot of confidence ahead of this match. They kept faith with Italian Panucci as their coach for over a year now and the team now comprises experience and youth. The biggest stars in their team are the likes of goalkeeper Strakosha, the right –back Hysaj and midfielder T.Xhaka who scored the only goal of the match against Israel on Friday night.



PAST MEETINGS

They have never met before