Serbia v Albania background
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Article summary
Serbia meet Albania for the first time as an independent nation in UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying Group I, hoping that meetings in the days of the former Yugoslavia augur well.
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Article body
Serbia meet Albania for the first time as an independent nation in UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying Group I, though the results of meetings in the days of the former Yugoslavia may prove encouraging for the home side.
Match background
• Serbia are meeting Albania at senior level for the first time since independence, though Yugoslavia twice beat Albania in 1968 UEFA European Championship qualifying.
• Those sides met in preliminary round Group 4. Rajko Mitić's Yugoslavia were 2-0 winners in Tirana on 15 May 1967 and then beat Loro Boriçi's Albania 4-0 in Belgrade on 12 November the same year. They went on to reach the final, where they lost to Italy in a replay – 3-1 in Rome following a 1-1 draw in the Italian capital two days earlier.
• Albanian and Serbian clubs have met in four UEFA club competition matches. Both nations' clubs have identical records (W1 D2 L1), though the Albanian club was victorious in both ties: KS Flamurtari beat FK Partizan 3-2 on aggregate in the 1987/88 UEFA Cup first round, while away goals proved to be the difference as KS Besa got the better of FK Bežanija in the 2007/08 UEFA Cup.
• The most recent encounter between Serbian and Albanian sides came on 24 March 2012, when Serbia beat Albania 3-0 in a UEFA European Under-17 Championship elite round match in Vienna, Austria.
