Giresse speaks before the match with Romania: They are favourite, but in Pristina there will be surprises

The “Dardians” will wait for Romania on 16 June, while after three days they will play the trip to Belarus, the Express newspaper reported.

These matches will meet lap three and four in Group I. After the first two rounds, the group leads Switzerland by 6 points as much as Romania has as the second. Kosovo is third with 2 points, followed by Andorra and Israel with 1 points. Belarus is the last and the last.

On the eve of the match with Romania, Kosovo's selection, Alain Giresse, has provided an interview for the Romanian medium “ProSport”

“I've seen Romania's recent matches, I've collected a lot of interesting details for the team, I know what we should do, but do you really expect to learn from me useful secrets for Monsieur Iordaescu?”, the French coach said at first.

The “for us is very good to miss Razvan Marin, who was an important player in the team's mechanism. However, Romania today relies more on group strength than on individuals. There's no more a Hagi or a Dumitrescu. It is a national in search of the golden years, which began the current season perfectly, and it forces us to be even more careful about Friday's” match, he added.

Zero is the number of direct matches between Romania and Kosovo. The national teams of these two states will meet for the first time at the “Fadil Vokri” Stadium.

“ProSport” estimated Giresse has an additional advantage in preparing the game, after hosting Ermal Krasniqi, the football player who activates at Clouji in Romania.

However, that is not what the selection of “Dardians” said: “Unfortunately, there's no way he's a perfect spy, because there are few players from the local championship he can talk to us about, he's familiar with”. Giresse stressed, however, that “on the team [Romania] has many footballers produced by the Hagi Academy, which for me means quality certificate. I noticed Farul also won the title in Romania. Haggi was a great player, and as a coach, he proves that he does productive and positive work”.

“Krsniqi we didn't call the previous gathering of the nationals, because we have many options in the attack zone. Then I thought it was better for him to stay in the club, fit in, had the time to integrate, because he moved back to Clui a while ago. Now he can help us more”, the 70-year-old continued.

On the other hand, Alain Giresse also spoke of the two March games in which Kosovo equated with Israel and Andorra. Both matches were closed with the same score of 1:1.

As for the match with Andorra, Giresse underlined that the draw with Andorra obliges Kosovo not to err with Romania.

It was a kind of game where the opponent closes with all the lines, blocks lanes with extraordinary effort, hangs on every ball. We just didn't find the right choices, we lost the case, so that unpleasant draw resulted. It was a unfortunate result, which now obliges us to stop taking the wrong steps at home, including towards Romania”, said Giresse, who then added that they are preparing a surprise for Romania HINA as he estimated that Kosovo is not the level of nationals in the region; Croatia, Serbia or Montenegro.

We are not at the level of Croatia, Serbia or Montenegro, but we are preparing enough surprises for Romania. We'll have some advantages to benefit, but please don't ask me what I'm thinking, because that would mean revealing important things from the dressing rooms. Of course, we will show aggression in the match against Romania, but nothing in the negative sense of the word. Aggressiveness and determination are some of the important qualities of this national, which, I recall, has a very short history at present. But we'll also have a great audience with us, always after the team. It'll be an extraordinary atmosphere”.

In the end, Giresse acknowledged that Romania is the favourite in the match against Kosovo.

“Romania is favoured in this match. Of course, you don't have football players from the top five European championships on your team now, unlike Kosovo. But it is of great importance to the different beginning in these preliminarys and the tradition of each team, which still plays an important role mentally”.