Sylvinho: Serbia, a difficult obstacle, but I believe in my team
Express newspaper
03/10/2025 13:33
Albania will play against Serbia on October 11 at 20:45, at the Leskovac stadium, the most important challenge of this journey in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. After announcing the list of 25 players, coach Silvinjo appeared today at the official press conference at the “House of Football”.
The Brazilian coach explained his selections for this group to journalists, while emphasizing that the October 11 match against Serbia is the most difficult and important challenge of the group and the team must be 100% focused. Towards Leskovci, the team will travel only to get a positive result. Among other things, he explained that he has not invited players like Seferi, Gripshi, Mehmeti, Muçi and Berisha.
“We have gathered 25 players. We have a slightly different situation this time. Four days ago, Ismajli had an injury and did not play. For the weekend match, he will not travel with the team to Rome for the match against Lazio. His team doctors will be in constant contact with our doctor, to see and assess his condition. We will wait for the weekend to make a decision.”
Do you believe in the team? – I absolutely believe in our players. It is not the moment for experiments. It is a very important moment of qualification, we know the players very well. Due to injuries, we have gathered Klisman Caken this time, who enters the group. Because it is the moment of experienced players, it is not the moment of a 21-22 year old boy, given that it is an important match. I believe and I am satisfied with the list of those gathered.
How will the National Team win this match? – It will be a tough and difficult match for both teams because we are both in the process of qualifying. Their team is very strong and experienced, but in football it is played for 90 minutes. A match is not decided in 15 or 20 minutes. Of course, we will be focused for 90 minutes to do our best. We are aware of what we have to do. I said it before, I believe a lot in my team, in the players, because when you give them confidence, a very good atmosphere is created in the locker room. I believe that we will have a good match. We have had good performances before, like in Prague, in Warsaw, and we will be 100% focused to do a good 90 minutes.
Is this the match that knocks us out of the World Cup if we don’t get a result? – It is an important match to stay “alive” and to be towards the objective of going to the World Cup. It is not a definitive match, because there are two more matches, in addition to the match with Serbia to complete this journey. We must be very focused to get the victory. We must perform very well to have a very good result. If everything goes well, it is also the “play-off”. The objective at the moment is to finish in second place, given that England is a very strong team. Now we must focus 100% on Serbia. It is a difficult obstacle, but we will give our maximum.
What more do Seferi, Gripshi and Mehmeti need to do to be part of the team? – First we have the second match and we may have changes in the future. I did not want to go to Serbia with 26-27-28 players, I prefer to focus on 24 or 25 players. Because even from my experience as a former player, sending players to the stands is ugly and annoying. I prefer to talk about the players I have collected, but I can still say that Gripshi is a player I have been following for 6 months and I like him a lot. I also visited Mehmet in Bristol, but as I have said before, we have a lot of ‘traffic’ on the left wing like Hoxha, Bajrami, Uzuni. Mehmet played on the right with us, but with his team he plays on the left wing. He played the first matches with us, we positioned him on the right. He is a very good player, I have nothing against him, but I prefer not to go with 26-27 players. I am very happy with the players we have collected. As for Sefer, he has had a very good journey with our national team. But I am satisfied with the players we have collected. I also want to mention Çoka, who I liked a lot in the last match. Balanced and tactical, but basically this is the list and the players we have collected.
How are the players’ emotional and psychological state for this match? – I saw the match 11 years ago. We are prepared to play a football match, to have a beautiful match from both sides. We must prepare well to give our 100%. I emphasized before that we have gathered 25 players in order to be focused on what we want to give. Part of working with the team is also the psychological aspect, but I would not call it a psychological aspect. I prefer to give messages to the team, that we must work hard and be focused on this part. We have several days of work in a row with the team, which will have space to work on the individual aspect.
Etrit Berisha? – The three goalkeepers we have selected for this match have given very good performances, both in the match and in training. I told Ilir Bozhiqi, our coach, that I liked their training. Dajsinani is doing very well. Simoni is a player for the future. When I took him to the European Championship, I did it because I have great confidence in Simoni that in the future he can get a place in this national team and go a long way. We have young players, if we look, there are always young players who are invited. This is how it happens in football, there is a change of generations. We are very happy with these players and we will prepare the matches with these goalkeepers.
President Duka has said that this match will decide the fate. Do you think it has double importance, both for the National Team and for you? – We have to focus 100% on the match with Serbia. I have to think about the future, but it’s not the moment. It doesn’t bother me at all, we have to focus on Serbia. That’s all we’re focused on. We shouldn’t waste energy on other things. I think about the future, it’s not the moment in my opinion. The match with Serbia is not important, but very important.
Why is Muçi missing and if Ismajli is injured, will there be a replacement? – Muçi has a new journey with a new club, but as I said there are many players on the left wing. I have to choose the players. I choose to go with 25 players, not 28 in Serbia. This was my choice regarding this match. If Ismajli doesn’t make it, we have to think about it. We have the weekend ahead and we have to wait. We will see his condition and the other players, because all the players play this weekend. We can talk on Sunday evening about this, but now we have to wait. There is a possibility to go with 24, we will see.
Changing the stadium for the match with Serbia is better for us, right? – Changing the stadium doesn’t change anything. It’s a new, smaller stadium. They’re used to playing in that stadium. They’ve played against Andorra, against Denmark, etc. In our case, nothing changes.
As has been announced, according to the agreement reached before the start of the qualifying edition, there will be no Albanian fans in Leskovac, just as there were no Serbian fans in Tirana.