Kick-off: 1700, 05/06/2021
Stadium: Cardiff City Stadium
TV: Sky Sports
Wales can be forgiven for a 3-0 loss to France in their first Euro 2020 warm-up match after going down to 10 men with just 25 minutes gone.
Robert Page will now be determined to claim a morale-boosting victory over Albania, who are 49 places below them in the FIFA rankings at 66.
We’re taking 17/10 for the Dragons to produce a clinical win to nil for our opening Wales vs Albania prediction.
A Look At Wales’ Betting Odds
Daniel James tested France keeper Hugo Lloris early on in Nice, but an already tough task became even more daunting when Neco Williams was harshly sent off for handball in the box.
Danny Ward did well to save Karim Benzema’s subsequent penalty but Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele went on to net for Les Bleus.
Page said: “Neco is devastated in there. He wanted justification from the referee but he couldn’t get it.
“We’ll do everything we can to overturn it. If there is a chance to do it, we will.
“That’s the disappointing thing. The plan was to play so many minutes today and building up to Saturday, but we can’t do that now.
“It was a harsh penalty anyway, to get him sent off as well was a bitter blow. It changed the course of the game.”
Wales, who are in Group A at Euro 2020 with Italy, Switzerland and Turkey, had lost just one of their previous eight games – and that was against world number one Belgium on the road.
The other seven matches produced five wins and six clean sheets, although the goals weren’t exactly flowing at the other end either.
Looking at the Wales vs Albania odds, we like 11/4 for a home victory and under 2.5 goals.
A Look At Albania’s Betting Odds
Albania finished a respectable fourth in their Euro 2020 qualifying pool, picking up 13 points but losing four times to table toppers France and Turkey.
Last year brought success in Nations League Group C4 ahead of Belarus, Lithuania and Kazakhstan, with three wins and a couple of draws from six fixtures.
March’s World Cup games also went pretty well, with workmanlike away wins over Andorra and San Marino coming either side of a 2-0 defeat by England in Tirana.
Head coach Edoardo Reja, 75, has managed a host of Italian clubs, including Napoli, Lazio and Atalanta in the latter stages of his admirable career.
Atalanta centre-back Berat Djimsiti is an imposing captain, while Amir Abrashi is a solid holding midfielder.
Whether the red and blacks have the attacking firepower to trouble a well-organised Wales defence is open to question, though.
Let’s add 29/10 for the Dragons to lead 1-0 at half-time to our Wales vs Albania betting tips.
Additional stats
Last result:
France 3-0 WALES
San Marino 0-2 ALBANIA – Manaj, Uzuni
Head-to-head: Albania 1-0 Wales, Albania 1-1 Wales, Wales 2-0 Albania
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