Our prediction for this Nations League match:
Albania and Czech Republic take on each other at Air Albania Stadium in what is expected to be a close UEFA Nations League encounter. Albania recorded a morale-boosting 1-0 win over Georgia in October and a win over Czech Republic should see them climb to top two in Group 1. As Rubin Kazan forward Mirlind Daku misses out through suspension, Sparta Prague man Indrit Tuci should keep his place in the starting XI.
Ivan Hasek’s troops, on the other hand, aim to retain top position in the standings. As the Czechs are likely to adopt a cautious approach in Saturday’s encounter, we believe that there is a big value in betting on under 2.5 goals. Earlier in the process Czech Republic defeated Albania 2-0 and yet another low-scoring affair is on the horizon. A man to watch in the away team will be Rangers winger Vaclav Cerny, who has been producing excellent performances in the Scottish top flight of late.
Highlighted Team (Czech Republic):
Czech Republic national team is the natural successor of the Czechoslovakia side that dominated world football during the 20th century, winning one European Championship trophy and coming second at 1934 and 1962 World Cups. After the separation of the country in 1992, Czech Republic continued the proud tradition by qualifying for each of the next six European Championship finals, losing to Germany in the final of the 1996 tournament.
The Czechs also reached the last eight at the 2012 finals, but their World Cup record of late is pretty disappointing. Since separating from Slovakia, Czech Republic only qualified for one of five World Cup finals. The 1996 generation, featuring players like Pavel Nedved, Karel Poborsky and Patrik Berger, will forever remained etched in the fans’ memory, while the likes of Milan Baros, Jan Koller, Petr Cech and Tomas Rosicky are some of the other notable footballers.
Highly rated goalkeeper Petr Cech is the team’s most capped player, whereas towering forward Jan Koller tops the goalscoring charts with 55 strikes in 91 games.