In fact, the evidence for the Albanian language descending from ancient Illyrian is quite strong: 
 # All the tribes living in the area of present-day Albania were regarded as Illyrian by the Romans, including the Albani mentioned by 2nd century geographer Ptolemy who likely gave their name to the country as a whole 
 # A comparison of the very limited Illyrian vocabulary extant with modern Albanian shows a relatively high incidence of matches e.g Illyrian rinos ("cloud") - Old Albanian ren, mod. Alb re.