Vata warns of Albanian confidence

Flamurtari held Gary Lineker's Barcelona home and away in 1986

Former Celtic defender Rudi Vata has backed Motherwell to defeat KS Flamurtari but thinks his Albanian countrymen will be confident of a win.

"The last time they were in Europe, they played Barcelona four times and were unbeaten in three games," Vata said ahead of the Europa League tie.

"Gary Lineker was playing and the home scores were 1-1 and 1-0.

"The fans will think they have a chance to go through and the team will think Motherwell is not such a big club."

The Scottish Premier League side, crippled by the number of players out of contract or sold during the summer, suffered a shock 1-0 defeat at home to Llanelli in the first leg.

But they set up the Europa League second qualifying round trip to Albania with a 3-0 win this week in Wales.

"From what I know of Albanian football and Scottish football, I think Motherwell will be physically stronger and that will be the deciding factor," said Vata, the former Albania international now working as a football agent.

No-one knows when we are going or how we're getting there Motherwell captain Stephen Craigan

"Flamurtari are a young team who were promoted to the Premier League in Albania the season before last.

"They won the cup, but they did not have a great season.

"They have some talented young players and they like to play football, but they don't have any experience at all on the European stage.

"The club has not been in Europe for some time, but the last time they did very well and they will fancy their chances."

In season 1985/86 Flamurtari drew 0-0 at the Nou Camp on Uefa Cup duty and a late goal in the second leg knocked them out on away goals. The following term, after wins over Partizan Belgrade and Wismut Aue, they were drawn against the Catalans again and beat then 1-0 at home before losing 4-1 away.

Vata warned that the stadium was likely to be full and that the temperatures were likely to be very warm and humid.

Motherwell captain Stephen Craigan admitted that his side face a trip into the unknown.

"No-one knows when we are going or how we're getting there, but it's definitely a game we are looking forward to," the Northern Ireland defender said on his return from Wales.

Craigan relishing Albanian trip

"We don't know an awful lot about them to be honest and it will be a case, over the next three or four days, of the management getting some information together."

Craigan thought the players and new manager Jim Gannon would have learned lessons from the matches against Llanelli that would help them against Flamurtari.