Albania and Switzerland meet up in the second game of the tournament and both teams have different expectations. Albania is happy to be here as a result of the European Cup expanding from 16 teams to 24 and are the longshots to make it out of Group A. Across the pitch, Switzerland had made some noise internationally in recent years and the Swiss are hoping to at least make it to the quarterfinals this time.
Soccer Odds at BookMaker.eu
Albania +460
Switzerland -132
Draw +240
Over/Under 2 (Under 2 -112)
ODDS ANALYSIS
Switzerland is a sizeable favorite in this match and looking at its roster it’s easy to see why. The Swiss have some notable talent on their roster, whereas the Albanians only have a handful of talented players. Albania also decided to leave possibly its most famous player at home as Hamdi Salihi was not added to the roster by manager Gianni De Biasi, putting it at a further disadvantage against Switzerland.
KEY PLAYERS
Albania’s captain is Lorik Cana and he will be the main one to watch in this match. Cana finds himself in an interesting position, after the collapse of Yugoslavia his family moved to Switzerland where he remained until being discovered by PSG. He spent most of his time as a youth in Switzerland and he had the option to play for the Swiss national team, but instead chose his native Albania. Cana is one of only a few Albanian players with more than 35 caps and he will be asked to play a big part for this team.
Xherdan Shaqiri has a very similar story to Cana. He too was born in Albania, but his family moved to Switzerland at a very young age and when the time came he chose to play for the Swiss. That decision has paid dividends for the Swiss who for years lacked a player with his ingenuity in its starting eleven. Shaqiri hasn’t had the club career that he was supposed to after signing on with Bayern Munich in 2012, but he will play a large role in Swiss hopes this tournament.
LIVE BETTING
Albania is in its first international tournament ever and the country has gone soccer mad. Tens of thousands of Albanians bought tickets to see their squad play in a major tournament for the first time ever and even though they are the minnows of Group A they will have plenty of vocal support from the crowd.
Swiss tactics have changed over the last few years. Gone are the boring, tactical low-scoring defensive affairs Switzerland used to play and they have been replaced by a high scoring Swiss squad. In qualifying, they scored 2.4 goals a game and that’ll be something to keep in mind.
QUICK PICK
These two teams met relatively recently in the qualifying for World Cup 2014. Switzerland bested Albania in each of those matches and Albania’s only goal came from Salihi. The Albanians have been playing a better brand of football of late though and shocked the world when they knocked off Portugal in qualifying for this tournament. That Portugal side slept through much of qualifying though and Switzerland will make for a much different test.
Albania has never defeated Switzerland in international play and it’s hard to imagine it’s going to happen now. The Swiss attack has just become too good and they will eventually be able to put one past Albania’s goalie. After that, the question becomes whether or not Albania can muster some offense and pull a draw out of the match but that’s unlikely. Switzerland should get a pretty easy victory here.
Euro 2016 Odds: Switzerland 2, Albania 1
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