Taulant and Granit Xhaka were brothers and best friends; they had come through the ranks at Basel together but Taulant, 18 months older than the fast-developing Granit, was on a year’s loan with the Zurich-based club.
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Switzerland accepted tens of thousands of Kosovar Albanians who fled the Balkan wars in the 1990s following the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.
“If I said we didn’t want to win the tournament, the coach would give me daggers!” Taulant was less eagerly pursued by the Swiss setup and that left the door open for him to represent Albania, finally making his first appearance in the 1-0 win in Portugal that set the tone for an eventful and sometimes stormy Group I campaign.
Albania, rather surprisingly, are taking part in their first-ever major men’s global tournament having failed to qualify for either the European Championships or the FIFA World Cup since their federation was founded in 1930.
Game one for Albania as they take on a quality squad in Switzerland.
Since qualifying for Euro 2016 Albania have played six friendlies, of which they have only won two against Luxembourg and Qatar. “With my brother it was a different story”.
That has caused some disquiet around the Swiss setup, but for now the focus is on Stade Bollaert-Delelis.
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Manager Gianni de Biasi will be monitoring the fitness of Taulant Xhaka before Saturday afternoon’s kick-off, but the Italian has no other injury concerns with Sokol Cikalleshi likely to operate as a lone striker.
The Eintracht Frankfurt forward was born in Switzerland in 1992 after his parents moved from Bosnia. Stephan Lichtsteiner leads the Swiss on the pitch.
Watch the live stream of Albania vs Switzerland’s Euro 2016 football match at 3 p.m. CET local time (9 a.m. ET) on June 11, 2016. They are full of euphoria, they’re strong offensively, well organised and unpredictable.
“I agree with those who say France are the favourites, but we can not underestimate Albania and Romania either. We’re going to try and play the best with our hearts and with organisation”. “After that you need to have a bit of luck with the draw, but I think with the team we have, we should be able to make it to the quarter-finals”.
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“There are single players in my squad who have experienced greater success but we hope to make people talk about us even a couple of years from now”.
