President of the Albanian Football Federation, Armand Duka, commented on the UEFA Nations League draw, where Albania will be part of group B1 along with the Czech Republic, Ukraine, and Georgia.

In a statement issued for fshf.org, President Duka stated that the group is balanced and added that he wouldn’t not want the Czech Republic as opponent again.

“The drawing of lots placed us against teams of the same level, but overall this is how the entire group B is because this is how Nations League is structured, with categories, with groups, and they are all at the same level, the fourth groups. Our group, I think, is balanced, there will be interesting results. I am not happy that we are playing against the same team again, it would be better to try against another team but the draw placed us against the Czech Republic again. We will visit Prague again and we will host the Czech Republic in Tirana. I hope we will have the same results as in the qualifiers,” President Duka said.

Furthermore, the head of Albanian football governance emphasized that initially the coach and the team should focus on the European Championship and then think about the UEFA Nations League.

“Although it is very important, Nations League has time to start as it will kick off in September. I would like to be focused and the coach and the team should be focused  on the European Championship. Let’s take things in order as football rules dictate and after the European Championship let’s also think about Nations League. Let’s think seriously, but we should not be distracted from the European Championship for the moment.

Let’s focus more on the first match against Italy and then on the subsequent matches later on. The teams in group B are all teams of the same level. I can say that some teams are even better than those in League A, such as England or the Czech Republic, which are of a very high level. So I didn’t have any preference from a sporting viewpoint, but as regards the new experiences, I would prefer it not to be the Czech Republic, let it be another team, even England,” President Duka was quoted as saying.

/k.s/