Euro 2024 got underway this past Friday with the match between the local country and Scotland. After a brilliant display of German football, the German team won 5-1 against the Scots, who did not have the best of returns to the main national team competition on the old continent. For this Saturday, the current champion Italy will be crossing with Albania for the first date of group B at 4:00 p.m. at the Borussia Dortmund stadium.
San Lorenzo is already in Santa Fe to visit Unión
The particularity of this meeting is that one of the protagonists has a great history with San Lorenzo itself, taking into account the members of the technical staff of the Albanian soccer team. Although the technical director is the Brazilian Sylvinho, the former Ciclón footballer Pablo Zabaleta is the field assistant of the former Corinthians coach.
Although it is true that the last generations of Cuervas could not appreciate Zabaleta in San Lorenzo, the reality is that The former Manchester City right-back knew how to wear the most beautiful shirt in the world 80 times and scored eight goals in addition to winning the Copa Sudamericana in 2002. After a successful time at Ciclón, Zabaleta was transferred to Espanyol from Barcelona and then joined Manchester City and finally closed his career at West Ham. Beyond his successful performance at the club level, the former leading scorer also had an outstanding time with the Argentine National Team where he played in the World Cup in Brazil ten years ago and three other Copa Américas.
After his retirement in 2020, Zabaleta chose to remain aligned with football, although from the technical direction. Since last year, the former San Lorenzo player began working with Sylvinho with whom he shared a squad at Manchester City and who was also chosen to coach the Albanian National Team. At the moment, the Brazilian-Argentine duo have played 13 matches with Albania, where they have won seven, drawn three and lost on three other occasions. This Saturday, Las Águilas will debut in what will be their second participation in a Euro Cup where they will face none other than the current champion Italy. It is the dream of Zabaleta and his team to achieve a historic victory against the Azzurra which would be only the second in the history of Albania in the Euro.
