So close, yet so far. Albania were minutes away from securing a historic point in front of almost 60,000 French supporters at the Stade De Velodrome in Marseille, but super-sub Antoine Griezmann had other plans and headed home in the 89th minute to pave the way for another late French win in this UEFA Euro 2016 campaign. 

Dimitri Payet added another one in 95th minute, with a low-drive which went past Valmir Berisha who has now conceded three goals in two outings. 

Nonetheless, Gianni De Biasi was satisfied for his team's performance and he is also confident that Albania has what it takes to make it to the next round. 

Antoine Griezmann dent Albania's hopes of snatching a point l Photo: uefa.com
Antoine Griezmann dents Albania's hopes of snatching a point l Photo: uefa.com

“My team resisted until the end, but we didn’t defend throughout. In the first half, and the start of the second, we had the clearer chances.''

Former Torino coach expressed his satisfaction for his players' performance against a strong team such as France, where he also underlined that they could have their say throughout the tie. 

One more chance

In the meantime, Albania are still in the thick of the group as a victory over Romania can be enough to see them through to the round of 16 as one of the best third-placed teams. 

''We can beat Romania to qualify. If we can score the goals we haven’t so far we can definitely get the points we need to get into the next round. We’ve shown we’re a proper team and play good football.''

Looking back to their previous couple of outings, this may seem difficult, particularly when Albania have not yet scored a goal. On the other hand however, Romania scored only from penalty-kicks, therefore both teams have evident attacking problems when it comes to capitalising from their goal-scoring occasions. 

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About the author
Gianluca Lia
Gianluca Lia (Birzebbuga, 30/01/1996) is a sport journalist since 2014. Graduated in Bachelor of Communications (General) in the University of Malta. Media contributor within the Women's Department at the Malta Football Association since March 2015 and sports writer for Malta's leading newspaper, Times of Malta (Allied Newspapers Limited) since February 2017. Contributes as a freelancer on international platforms as well, on VAVEL UK, VAVEL US, MLSSoccerItalia, Into The Calderon (SB Nation) and Twice A Cosmo (SB Nation).