European Championship Qualifiers: Six private jets to Andorra’s three national points

Train to Ticino, private planes to Andorra – At 6:39 pm on Thursday, the first small plane loaded with Natty stars landed on the runway of Andorra’s airport – La Seu d’Urgell. Among others on board: Captain Granit Shaka, Xherdan Shaqiri and Manuel Akanji. Within the next few minutes, the remaining two, three, and four National Stars follow the Flyers. Two other aircraft were used by the Swiss national team crew for the flight.

Due to the short runway, the approach to the airport, which is located about 15 kilometers south of Andorra and therefore on Spanish soil, is not possible with larger passenger planes. That is why the association decided to divide the national team players between several small planes for the flight from Milan. The journey through Barcelona’s larger airport, some 200 kilometers away, meant a total travel time of seven hours for Nati’s stars.

Rodriguez has checked out Netflix

About 45 minutes after landing, Murat Yakin and Ricardo Rodriguez are already sitting in the Sports Center of Andorra and reporting on the rather special national flight. “I slept first and then watched an old movie on Netflix,” says the Torino defender and captain. “I have already seen all the new things.” His coach seemed to have enjoyed the ride, too. “That was very interesting. But I’ve also been able to enjoy a private jet trip at one point or another in the past,” says Yakin.

Friday evening (8.45 pm) the national team will meet Andorra in the third qualifying match for the European Championship. Although the world number 153 plays the obvious underdog, Yaqin is wary of an opponent. Not entirely gratuitous: In March, the Pyrenees drew 1-1 away from Kosovo. In addition, Natty’s last appearance in Andorra was not smooth sailing. In October 2016, the Swiss national team struggled to a narrow 2-1 win at the Estadi Nacional – at the time still on artificial turf.

Yaken has bad memories of the “soccer dwarves”

“It’s never easy against such a defensive opponent, especially for a defender and a goalkeeper,” Yakin says. “Sometimes you don’t get involved in the game for too long, but you always have to stay fully focused.” Still, the national coach doesn’t think his team will let itself slip first after two wins in two games on Friday night. “In the spring we showed against Belarus in front of empty stands that we can play our game even against small opponents.” And if things didn’t go well, they also showed in previous matches: “So we can always change the pace,” said the national team coach.

But Yakin himself not only has good memories of duels against supposed “soccer dwarfs”. In 1996, Nati sensationally lost 1-0 in a World Cup qualifier away from home in Azerbaijan. Even the coach of the national team today missed a penalty kick. “But only because three or four players swerved in front of me,” Yaqin adds with a smile.