Kosovo coach Bernard Challandes joked the only way to stop Raheem Sterling is to break his leg.
England play Kosovo on Sunday in their final Euro 2020 qualifying game on the back of a 7-0 rout of Montenegro, a game Sterling didn’t feature in following his bust-up with team-mate Joe Gomez.
Sterling is expected to be recalled for the Kosovo game and Challandes heaped praise on the forward.
‘For us it is not good news for sure,’ he said about Sterling’s return for England.
‘It is double bad news because if Sterling plays he is one of the best in his position in the world and we saw in the first game the trouble with Sterling.
‘Secondly, if I am Sterling I think in this game I must show good behaviour.
‘I think if Kosovo play against England and we know exactly the offensive potential, we have no individual answer – it is only collective work.
‘It is clear if we remember the first game in England, if Sterling has so much space it is impossible to stop him because what he did in that game, it was 460 metres with high intensity.
‘The most intense player for the Czech Republic was 200 metres, even that is a good score.
‘Only as a team can we do and can we find a solution. Or we break the leg!
‘But that is not our style, we are too nice – we are a team who are very, very, very nice but it is not a problem if we play together.’
England have already qualified for Euro 2020 and come into the game off the back of a controversial week.
Gareth Southgate has been criticised for his handling of Gomez and Sterling’s row and the Liverpool defender was then inexplicably booed by England fans at Wembley on Thursday night.
Gomez has withdrawn from the squad due to a knee injury, while Sterling was the first to defend his team-mate and brand the booing ‘wrong’.
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