Assistant Coach of Albania Paolo Tramezzani says he was 'hoping to draw Italy' and promises they'll 'fight to the bitter end'.
The Albanian national team is currently being managed by an all-Italian staff, starting from Coach Gianni De Biasi.
Commenting on the World Cup qualifiers group draw, which partnered his team with those of Italy and Spain, Tramezzani didn't sound as disappointed as one might expect.
Assistant Coach of Albania Paolo Tramezzani says he was 'hoping to draw Italy' and promises they'll 'fight to the bitter end'.
The Albanian national team is currently being managed by an all-Italian staff, starting from Coach Gianni De Biasi.
Commenting on the World Cup qualifiers group draw, which partnered his team with those of Italy and Spain, Tramezzani didn't sound as disappointed as one might expect.
“I confess that I was hoping to cross paths with Italy,” he told Tuttomercatoweb. “It's hardly a match like any other for us.
“Spain and the Azzurri have the better teams, that's sure enough, but we're developing very well and we've shown that against great teams like Serbia, France and Portugal.
“We'll fight to the bitter end, though we know it's going to be very hard with only one place available to qualify directly.”
Tramezzani was then asked which names in the Italy U21 squad could make it to Russia.
“[Davide] Zappacosta, [Danilo] Cataldi, [Daniele] Baselli, [Andrea] Belotti, [Domenico] Berardi, [Alessio] Romagnoli, and [Daniele] Rugani are all ready to be integrated into the Azzurri group in my opinion.
“So is [Marco] Benassi, whom I liked enormously against the Czech Republic. I think that [Coach Antonio] Conte will notice him very quickly.”