The national team begins training, Hysaj: The World Cup is a childhood dream, let's beat Poland

2026-03-23 11:30:00, Sport CNA

The national team begins training, Hysaj: The World Cup is a childhood dream,

The Albanian national team has begun training for the World Cup play-off matches.

At the press conference, Elseid Hysaj spoke, stating that despite the few minutes in the team, the situation in the National Team is different.

The right-back believes in the World Cup, which he said is a childhood dream, while also praising Poland, the first opponent in the play-offs.

"It's true that I haven't had any playing time, but when you come to the National Team it's a different feeling, like another job that you're going to do and you're going to do your best. If I have 60 minutes I'll give my best and then I'll go out, I'll give my place to someone else, we're all available for the National Team. It's a difficult match, Poland is a strong team, with many names, they've shown that they have quality, but now we have the only chance that can take us to the World Cup, it's a single opportunity, we're all happy that we've reached the play-offs, we'll give our best. We're a little unlucky because in other times the first and second teams have gone to the World Cup, but now it's in our hands, we want to go there, we've shown that we want to give Albania a beautiful World Cup.

It's been two years since I've had a few hiccups where I play for my team, but the National Team part is something else that I've done my best, I've played and when I've been on the bench I've supported them from the outside. This minute work is a bit of a hassle there, but it's a great pride that I'll be playing a playoff match with the National Team.

The match with Poland that we played was very nice, if we play well together, I will play well too, I will do my best. The absences are serious because Manah and Daku are important, when they are on the field, we have greater help to score goals and advance, when some are missing it is an opportunity for others to show that they deserve to be called up to the National Team, here is something great, respect for those who will come and those who are missing, we have a very good coach who will know what to do.

This has been a dream since I was little, when you win two European Championships you also want the World Cup. Sometimes they come true, sometimes they don't, but I have great faith, we have this opportunity, it's a one-on-one match, it's difficult, we're going for the win, if we played at home it would be better, we're all ready, we have a door to go through, if we don't pass through we'll turn back, we'll cry, whatever we do.

"We'll beat Poland once, if we win, you can't be happy about anything, because we have another match. If we beat Poland, we have the match of a lifetime. We will do it with heart like we have done every other match and we will make as many Albanians proud as possible," he declared .