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| Marash Kumbulla over Robert Lewandowski in the match Albania - Poland in Air Albania on October 12, 2021 |
The injury of Berat Gjimsht was experienced with a lot of anxiety and doubts before the challenge with Poland, the inevitable question from everyone was who will stop Robert Lewandowski?
The role of the leader in the background, quite naturally, was taken by Marash Kumbulla, the most criticized player after the first challenge against Poland. Kumbulla gave the first signals from the moment when Gjimshiti came out of the "Puskás Aréna" on a stretcher, he calmly and prudently led the background, allowing a few for Hungarians. His appearance increased on "Air Albania" where for 90 minutes he made a giant like Lewandowski look small.
Italian media have echoed the appearance of the Roma center-back, bringing to attention his statistics. In both challenges, against Hungary and Poland, Kumbulla was active 90 minutes on the field being accurate in 87% of passes. Kumbulla managed to recover 17 balls while in 24 duels he managed to win 83% of them. Even in the air he was almost perfect in both games, in 11 duels won 81.5%. And to think that in front of him was a striker like Lewandowski, the main candidate to win the "Golden Ball".
