This is not the kind of build-up where Albania are pretending the stakes are small. Berat Gjimshiti has made that much clear. Before Albania vs Belarus, the captain laid out a simple internal pact: give everything, stay together and chase first place in the Nations League group. That is not cautious talk. That is a squad putting its own ambitions on the line before a ball has even been kicked.
On Saturday at 20:45, Albania were set to debut in the Nations League group, and Gjimshiti’s message from the press conference was refreshingly direct. The promise, he said, is that the players will give their best. No spin, no soft-focus clichés, no attempt to dress up the occasion as something it is not. For Albania, this is about immediate seriousness and a longer road to something bigger.
The real target is bigger than Belarus
Gjimshiti was just as clear about where Albania want to go next. The goal, he said, is first place, and with it the chance to reach the European Championship for the third time. He framed it as the right path, and that matters because it shows the team are not treating this as one isolated fixture. They are linking Belarus to a larger picture: building momentum, keeping standards high and giving themselves another shot at Europe’s top stage.
There is also a useful honesty in the way Gjimshiti described the squad’s evolution. In recent years he has worked under several different coaches and tactics, and he also said he has spoken a lot with Mara about tactics and other issues. That sort of line matters because it suggests the players are not just waiting for instructions. They are engaged in the process, trying to understand what works and what paves the way to success.
Experience, pressure and perspective
Albania’s captain did not hide from the awkwardness of football’s long grind either. He referred back to Poland for the World Cup and said Albania were not lucky there, but that the ambition to repeat a European Championship appearance remains alive. Why not, he asked, make it the third time? That is the sort of question that can sound dreamy in a weaker side. Here it sounds like a team refusing to lower its ceiling.
Even his comments about Saudi Arabia carried the same practical edge. Gjimshiti joked that he may have paved the way for Asllani, before stressing that the league is difficult, even if it does not always look that way from the outside. He described it as a challenge for defenders, with quality players arriving from Europe in the last 3-4 years and every team carrying a dangerous striker. In other words: he is not interested in easy narratives, only in hard work and clear standards.
So the message before Belarus is simple enough. Albania are not arriving with excuses. They are arriving with a promise, a plan and a captain who has no appetite for lowering the bar. If they really do give their best, the Nations League opener becomes something more than a fixture. It becomes the first test of whether that promise means anything at all.
