The Red and Blacks, coach Maran: We were penalised by the red card, but…

Albania coach Rolando Maran has commented on the defeat suffered in Helsinki, 2-1 against Finland.

“We deserved a positive result. We played a very good match, we even deserved the win, despite playing with 10 players. We were penalised starting from the red card. In fact, we had some space, some chances during the match, the team fought to create moves, but we were penalised, we are sorry.”

“Of course we need to improve some things, but a match like this gives us the strength to move forward, especially for our fans, who were wonderful here too. Of course we were also penalised by some refereeing decisions, which are a little incomprehensible, but with this performance we can move forward and we are motivated.”

On the substitution of Arbër Hoxha — “He played a very good match, but based on the characteristics of the game we had to make such decisions. We needed Manaj on the pitch since he is constantly in contact with the ball, he manages to bring balls out in front of goal. On the other hand we could also use the spaces that Muçi created. Arbër Hoxha was playing a very good match up to that point, but based on the characteristics of the match we were forced to make such changes.”