Albania vs Belarus prediction and predicted line-ups: Rolando Maran's first competitive game. Nations League

Rolando Maran's first competitive game as Albania coach comes on Saturday 26 September in Tirana, against Belarus. Maran, the fifth Italian to coach Albania after Giuseppe Dossena, Gianni De Biasi, Christian Panucci and Edy Reja, lost both of his June friendlies 1-0, to Israel and Luxembourg, and Albania have now lost five in a row. Viktor Goncharenko's Belarus, on the other hand, are unbeaten in six.

Albania vs Belarus: kick-off time and venue

Albania vs Belarus kicks off at 19:45 UK time (20:45 CEST) on Saturday 26 September at the Air Albania Stadium in Tirana. It is Group C1 of League C in the Nations League, with Finland and San Marino. The group winners go up to League B, the target Maran set on 19 September. There will be a crowd in Tirana, while Belarus's own home games are played in Budapest behind closed doors under UEFA restrictions that are still in place.

Team news

Maran has lost two midfielders: Qazim Laçi, with a grade one tear in his left hamstring, replaced by under-21 captain Feta Fetai, and Adrion Pajaziti, whose place has gone to Klevi Qefalia of Dinamo City. Rayo Vallecano's Ivan Balliu has an ankle injury and is not with the squad: the federation says he will join up only if he improves in the next few days. Thomas Strakosha is injured, which is why 37-year-old Etrit Berisha is back, while Armando Broja and Nedim Bajrami were left out. The other 28 all trained on Tuesday 22 September.

Goncharenko is without the injured defenders Vladislav Malkevich and Gleb Shevchenko and has called up Lukashov and Parkhomenko. Before flying to Tirana on Thursday 24 September, his side trained at the National Stadium in Minsk with recorded crowd noise played over the speakers to get used to the atmosphere. On 21 September the coach said: “Если касаться Албании, у нее очень хорошая группа атаки” (As for Albania, they have a very good attacking unit).

Albania vs Belarus predicted line-ups

Neither XI holds up: there are no reliable previews, and the computer-generated predictions include players who are not available. In goal it is Cagliari's Alen Sherri or Etrit Berisha; at right-back, without Balliu, Elseid Hysaj or 19-year-old Samuele Sina. Kristjan Asllani, on loan from Inter at Al Jazira, anchors the midfield, with two of Ylber Ramadani, Frosinone's Luis Hasa, Juljan Shehu and Ernest Muçi; up front the options are Rey Manaj, Mirlind Daku, Myrto Uzuni and Cesena's Cristian Shpendi, who has six goals in the first five rounds of Serie B, with Arbër Hoxha, Anis Mehmeti and Sabah Kerjota for the flanks. For Belarus the most regular names are Gromyko, Ebong and captain Yablonsky, with Pavlyuchenko or Lapoukhov in goal. The official line-ups are released about an hour before kick-off.

Head-to-head and form

Seven meetings: three Albania wins, two draws and two Belarus wins, with ten goals each. The last two came in the 2020/21 Nations League, 2-0 in Minsk and 3-2 in Tirana, with a goal from Manaj, and Albania went up to League B. In World Cup qualifying Albania won 1-0 in Serbia and in Andorra and lost 2-0 to England, then went out 2-1 in Poland in the play-off semi-final in March. They have lost three friendlies 1-0 since. Belarus finished bottom of their qualifying group with two points; under Goncharenko they have beaten Cyprus, Armenia and Syria and drawn 2-2 with Burkina Faso.

Our Albania vs Belarus prediction

Our call is no more than three goals, confidence 6 out of 10. Albania have scored once in their last five games, friendlies included, and none of their last five competitive games produced more than three goals. The whole round is in our matchday one preview.

Every game with our calls is on the Nations League page. The record of settled calls is in the results history, and our calls on individual players are in player predictions.