We've only had that tie against Germany and a win against the best Belgium team in 85. Due to our players being amateurs they never had the chance to develop professionally. What made them hold was their skills. Maybe fear wasn't the proper word here, but after their 0-0 the Germans never underestimated us again.
I'm pretty sure he was referring to you and not all Shkodrans.
Damn right I was. But either way I've been told most of the real Shkodrans have moved from Shkodra. Just like there's plenty of maloks acting like they're from Tirana, there's plenty of maloks acting like they're from Shkodra.
Come on! All you have to do is look at the results at those years to know that Albania was a complete punching bag back(MUCH more than it has been in the last decade). That 0-0 was the only respectable result and although it was against a great opponent, it's really nothing to pound your chest about. Albania was as feared back then as Andorra is now
In terms of results Albania started improving when Brigiel took over.
They never trained professionally, they never had enough to eat and they had to work through their regular jobs before training for 1 or 2 hours 3 times a week. And of course pay, it wasn't the most enticing one either. And yet they were still able to get a 0-0 against one of the best if not the best German team of all times.
At that era Albanian football was at baby step stage so you can just guess how bad the quality of the league and defenders were. Probably Alb 3rd division level of today so any skill showed was probably too overwhelming. For all we know Pano was as good as Jahmir Hyka.
Baby step? Our football wasn't that even in the 30s where we had more guys playing Serie A than we currently do now. As I mentioned they never trained much, because nobody gave it that much importance plus it didn't pay off at all. They were making like $5 a month and just because you were Panajot Pano didn't mean you were gonna get $10 a month. But their skills they were street groomed, and these guys had some serious skills.
And seriously have you ever watched any old games? Zep, do you even realize what you said? They'll make a fool out of you for even suggesting a nobody is as good as Pano was. What you saw a video of Hyka dribbling some kids in Norway and he suddenly is the undisputed dribbling king in Albania?:howler:
Doesn't do any justice, but youtube doesn't have much. I'd like to see this Hyka guy move through the current Torino defenders like Pano did when Toro had a decent team.
P3M98609cgM