The qualifying rounds for the three major European Cups are coming to an end. Balkan clubs from the Kosovo region have reached the final round of the UEFA qualifiers and are expected to reach the final UEFA group stage.
Their opponent is FC Shkupi from the North Macedonian league. The team eliminated lincoln red devils 3-2 on aggregate in champions league qualifiers, and in the second qualifying round they lost to Croatian giants Dinamo Zagreb. After moving to the Europa League qualifying match, the team lost to Shamrock Rangers 2-5 on aggregate.
And Shamlock is a team that is only from the Irish league, and the level is not high. Their disastrous defeat shows that the team's potential is limited. After moving to the UEFA qualifiers, they finally got the chance to qualify for the last round. The total value of FC Shkupi is only 5.72 million euros, and the strength of the team is not necessarily much stronger than the Kosovo team.
Kosovo's Balkan side lost to Lithuanian side Salgris in extra time in the Champions League qualifiers, and after moving to the UEFA League, they unsurprisingly beat San Marino side La Fiorita by a score of 10-0 in two legs to advance to the third round of qualifying. Facing Faroe Islands side Caracasvik, they won 3-2 at home and the two sides fought for a long time away from home, ending with a victory in the Balkans.
Facing a perhaps less powerful North Macedonian team, Kosovo is expected to make new history and reach the group stage of the UEFA competition. If this is achieved, they will create a new history.
Because of the late arrival of UEFA, the Clubs of Kosovo initially had to play the earliest qualifying rounds after the Champions League reform in the 18/19 season, and the teams in the Gibraltar and Andorran leagues. Over the years, it has been difficult for Kosovo teams to escape the embarrassing fate of a qualifying round.
It can be said that the Balkans have reached the final round of qualifying, which is the embodiment of the progress of Football in Kosovo. And their team has also made real progress. After joining UEFA in 2016, through their own efforts, they have also made progress and promotion.
In fact, there are many players in the Kosovo team who play in Ligue 1, La Liga and Serie A, as well as players who play in the Dutch First Division, the Swiss Super League, the Bundesliga, and the Second-rate Leagues such as the Championship and the Turkish Super League. The most expensive of the team is Napoli-based centre-back Rahmani, who has reached 25 million euros. Vidat. Muric, a high school striker who played in turkey, became sunk after coming to Serie A, and performed well to help the team relegation after loaning to La Liga side Mallorca.
The team's ranking has also risen rapidly. In the UEFA Nations League, they were promoted from Group D to Group C. Now the team's international ranking has come to 106th. Teams under the ranks include Cyprus, Thailand, Estonia and Kazakhstan, Angola and the Gambia.
Kosovo has inherited the tradition of attacking talent in the former Yugoslavia, with many skilled wingers in the front and high school strikers like Muric in the team. But the team has a limited ceiling and it will be difficult to reach the final round of the European Championship or World Cup.
The manager of the team is the Frenchman Gireser, who has served as the coach of the national teams of Georgia, Mali, Gabon, Tunisia and other countries. I don't know what kind of results the 70-year-old manager, who has just taken up his new position this spring, will lead the team to play this year.