“People claimed they would put four past us in the first game, five in the second, and we wouldn’t show up for the third,” Sylvinho, Albabia’s coach, had said, but they did show up, as they have done throughout their 10 days here. Thousands had come to enjoy this and their team had come to compete too, so they did: going at Spain, giving everything and getting beaten, sure, but by no greater scoreline than more than illustrious footballing nations, departing with Sylvinho insisting he was proud: “I lost many nights’ sleep but it was worth it,” he said.
A solitary early strike from Ferran Torres decided it, securing a result that Albania resisted to the last. Then they stood before their fans, a sea of red dotted with white qeleshes, and clapped together, smoke circling. “You can’t imagine what that feels like,” Sylvinho said.
