Albania vs Portugal Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

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Joel Amorim Sep 05, 2015 @ 01:54 am

Next Monday, 7th of September 2015, Portugal will travel to Elbasan to measure forces with Albania at the Elbasan Arena for the 2016 UEFA European Championship Qualifying Round.

After a miserable World Cup stint at Brazil last year, Portugal carried on playing in the same monochromatic tone when the European qualifiers started three months later. A surprising home defeat against Albania, however, forced Paulo Bento’s sacking and, with Fernando Santos at the helm, the Portuguese doesn’t seem to be no longer adrift.

Portugal bounced back an extremely abnormal start and are now at the top of their group with 12 points from five matches. A win at Albania will almost grant the Portuguese team a place in the European Championship next year, but they will surely need to dig deep in order to achieve that. The last time Portugal travelled to Albania was back in 2009 and, on that occasion, they snatched a narrow 2-1 win thanks to goals from Hugo Almeida and Bruno Alves. Bogdani scored for the Albanese by the way.

Portugal was defeated by France last Friday night in Lisbon and extended their miserable record against Les Bleus. The experienced Portuguese centre back Ricardo Carvalho had another night to forget as he was forced to leave the pitch with an injury after being elbowed by Patrice Evra on minute 27’. Besides Ricardo Carvalho, who is in doubt for next Monday’s match, Fernando Santos will not be able to rely on the contribution of Bruno Alves, Tiago, João Moutinho and William Carvalho, all sideline due to injury.

As for Albania, the Balkan team are yet to be defeated at Group I after five matches. By the hand of Gianni de Biasi, the Albanese team have been extremely impressive lately and they are certainly hoping to extend their excellent run when they meet Cristiano Ronaldo and his peers next Monday. Last Friday night, Albania snatched an excellent draw at Copenhagen in Denmark what has allowed them to maintain the third place of their group with the same points of the Danish but with a match in hand.

Albania have never defeated Portugal in their own territory; in fact, they were defeated on the two occasions both sides measure forces in the past, although things are very different now and the Albanese have everything in their favour to cause their opponents another major upset.

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