Albanian football player Alioski: We want to defeat Germany again

Leeds United and Northern Macedonia representative Ezdjan Alioski was one of the guests of the show “Zona Gol” Sunday evening on the Supersport screen.

Tell us about that historic North Macedonian victory over Germany

We went willingly because we knew we had nothing to lose and it was the opportunity to demonstrate our quality. We played very well, and it's a long-remembering victory. No Balkan representative has won in Germany. The world's four-time world champion team comes and defeats Macedonia. We have to enjoy it and I believe it will always be remembered, but to get to the world, we have to beat Germany back into our home.

What is the key to North Macedonia's success?

We have many qualities, we have many talents. The 11th title is generally playing outside Macedonia, and I believe it has helped us a lot more. Organization has been extremely good, starts from age to national A. It's all started by President Sejdin, then the coach, the players. We have a lot of self-confidence, because we've been together for 5-6 years and we're not just colleagues, we're really friends with each other, we have a united group.

Did you start thinking about the European Championship?

It's still too early to smell European, but I think when the time comes we'll have a lot of excitement, all of us, even Pandev, who has won Champian League. It's going to be an unsurpassed feeling, but we're going to be very eager because that's the first turnout and you don't know when it might be the next European participation in Northern Macedonia. We should enjoy it.

How's the experience with Leeds United at Premier League?

I'm sure Biels made me a much stronger player. He has improved me not only in the field but also psychologically because of my growing up. We don't have a big name on the team, but we're a working team, we have a couple of years together and we function as a group. If this were our second year at Premier with Bielson on the bench, maybe we would fight for a place in Champions.

What's it like working with Bielsa?

Bielsa is a very special man. He didn't want to have contact with the players, but he's a very motivating coach, every day in training, he learns something new from him. There's a man who controls everything from food to the last exercise in training. It's rigorous and, for example, if I don't make 12 km of a match, I have problems with it. When you talk to Bielsa, it's not <x0... It's a word coach- a little hard-to-do.

Interest in different languages.

I speak seven languages because I grew up in Switzerland, where I learned German, Italian, and English. I learned Spanish here in England, and Macedonian in nationals. At home, though, we always speak Albanian.