Article by Romeo Ene – published on Saturday, June 07, 2025, 17:40 / Updated on Saturday, 07 June 2025 17:42
Albania – Serbia, match in the K group of preliminaries for the 2026 World Championship, is played this evening, from 9:45 pm. Taking into account the historical conflict between the two countries, a match with a major degree of risk is announced. And a few hours before the start, the Kosovar supporters “invaded” the center of Tirana, the capital of Albania.
The duel will take place on the “Air Albania Stadium” arena, a stadium with a capacity of 22,500 seats. But the request for tickets was huge! About one million kosovari would have liked to be present at the stadium to support Albania's national.
Photo gallery. Maximum voltage before Albania – Serbia
“I heard that there were over 800,000 applications for tickets. Those who will be on the stadium are lucky. I would have wanted to bring my father from Brazil to the match, but it would have been a long way,” said Sylvino, Albania's coach, quoted by Sportal.Blic.rs.
The Albanians from Kosovo, who are, in fact, forbidden access to the stadium to reduce the risk of incidents (the entrance is allowed only on the basis of the Albanian passport), started in large numbers to Tirana this morning. Kosovo binds to Albania were formed.
The match is described by the local press as “historical”, and many want to witness it, but it remains the question how and if they have managed to get tickets.
A steak of UCK has already been displayed by Kosovar supporters in front of the Tirana stadium. Uck (Kosovo's release army) is a separatist organization, considered terrorist by Serbia, consisting of Albanian Kosovari. Uck fought for Kosovo independence from Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
The UCK is also considered a terrorist organization by the UN. The emblem of this group appeared on the Fadilj Vokri stadium, during the match lost by Kosovo in front of Romania, score 0-3, in the League of Nations.
It is, in fact, for the first time that Serbia plays in the capital of Albania. In 2015, Serbia defeated Albania at Elbasan, score 2-0, but the Albanians finished above in the qualification group at the European Championship in 2016.
After the first two stages of Group K, Albania is in 2nd place, with 3 points, while for Serbs is the first match of this group, which includes England, Latvia and Andorra.
Kosovo declared his independence 16 years ago
Kosovo declared his independence from Serbia on February 17, 2008, and in the next two years and half more than 100 UN states they recognized this independence, including all its neighbors, except Serbia.
Among the few countries that have not done this, along with Spain, Russia or China, is Romania.
