We have not given up on the Cup,” Daja: “We have a strong starting eleven, those coming off the bench must earn their place in the lineup

Skënderbeu managed to defeat Dinamo away with a 2-0 result in the first round of the Albanian Cup quarterfinals. At the end of the match, Dinamo’s coach, Ilir Daja, spoke to the media.

“The difference between this match and the one in the championship is that after conceding that counterattack goal, considering how Skënderbeu defends and the fact that they have a team with fast players, it was expected that they would hit us on the counter. Where we needed to react, we ended up conceding an own goal.

We didn’t have the strength to attack even in the few chances that came our way. What we could have changed was the upper attacking lines and the inner spaces. But we don’t have players for that because they are injured. What I see in our team is that we have a strong starting eleven, but the players who come on must work very hard to earn a starting spot.

I don’t believe the players took the match lightly because the Cup is one of our objectives, even though we have now gotten a difficult result. The next match won’t be easy as we’ll be playing in Korçë. We needed to be more patient in ball circulation to find the right spaces to penetrate and not give the ball away so easily.

In the second half, too many mistakes were made in passing, and when we occupied the right zones, we did so with our backs to the opponent’s goal. Mandela is an important player for us, but I don’t think we should be dependent on just one player,” said Daja.

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