Striker Albert Bunjaku admits Kosovo head into their historic first official qualifying campaign full of hope rather than expectation.

The 32-year-old knows FIFA’s newly-admitted nation will take time to get up to the speed of some of their European rivals but believes being able to play a first competitive match is remarkable in itself.

Kosovo became the 210th member of FIFA in May this year after a long fight to be recognised on the international stage and today they kick off their much-anticipated, if unlikely, bid to reach Russia 2018 against Finland in Turku.

“Practically nobody believed that we’d come this far so quickly and that we’d already be taking part in qualifying for a World Cup,” Bunjaku said.

“It’s a huge success that we’ve made this step – two years ago, nobody would have believed it possible. You can obviously see that we’re only just starting and that everything’s still at that early stage.

“This is new territory for us all and we have to find our game and get used to playing together but I think we’re on the right path.

“We need some time and then things will develop over the next few years.”