FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
The Albanian national team will face Spain today with the hope of achieving a historic result, which would translate into the qualification of the Reds and Blacks in the 1/8 stage.
Albania has managed to this day to face the Iberians as equals, although the statistics leave us hopeless. The history of the confrontation between the two national teams contains stories that were unimaginable at the time. Some time ago the Iberian media brought to attention stories that cannot be erased from memory for both countries. Below we will present some of the highlights of the confrontation between the two national teams reflected by the Spanish media.
Spicy historical Albania-Spain
It was the middle of winter 1986 (December 3, 1986), when Albania and Spain faced each other for the first time in history. A match that also coincided with the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, with communist Albania led by Ramiz Alia. Spain arrived in Tirana, where in the central square of Tirana a banner awaited him: "Glory to the Labor Party of Albania".
On the day that coincided with the first official meeting between the two national teams, Ramiz Alia received the credentials of Luis Cuervo, the first full-fledged ambassador of Spain in Albania. Since the death of the dictator of Spain, Franco, the Albanian ambassadors were forbidden to meet their Spanish colleagues in official meetings, when they were supposed to be together outside.
The match played on December 3, 1986 in Albania was very special. It coincided with the first match broadcast abroad. At 14:00, a match began in which Spain suffered a lot, although in the end they won. "Red Fury" won 1-2 with the goals of Arteçe and Joaquin, while Çendo wasted an 11-meter penalty for the Spaniards. After many problems, the Spanish state television "TVE 2" was able to broadcast the meeting live through a signal that came through Greece. This was Albania's first match that could be seen outside its borders.
For the Spanish newspaper "Marca", the rhythm of life in the capital of Albania at that time was quite strange. Tirana in 1986 was a capital city with very limited traffic, no cars, that looked like a city where time had stopped. In the streets that were built to move cars, bicycles had taken their place. Meanwhile, the security measures at the hotel where the Spanish national team was staying were extreme.
Together with the Spanish national team that traveled to Albania in 1986, there was also Juan Senjor, the author of one of the goals in the 12-1 victory of "Red Fury" against Malta. Senjor remembers an event that maybe for the generation of that time in Albania was something common, but not at all for the Spaniards and European countries. He noticed the fact that most of the land in our country was worked by women! "I remember the journey from the airport to the city and what I noticed was that there were many people working in the fields, but the special thing was that they were all women! Another thing that impressed me was the change in the panorama of the city, I didn't notice the children, while people were walking separately, I didn't see groups", recalled Senjor. He also remembers the first match between Albania and Spain. "It was a very complicated match for us. Albania put us in a lot of trouble, while on the other hand, I remember that it was one of the few matches that Spain played with white jerseys", he commented in the press of the time in Spain.
Spain would visit Albania five years later. In 1991 "Red Fury" would face Albania for the qualifiers of the 1992 European Championship in Sweden. In Seville, Spain triumphed 9-0 with four goals from Emilio Butragenjos. The second leg was scheduled to take place on 18 December 1991. But this match was never played. With Spain eliminated and without any chance to grab the European ticket and with Albania overthrowing the communist regime, the match was almost impossible to play due to the very difficult political and security conditions in Albania. After exchanges of letters between the federations of both countries, it was Spain that requested the suspension of the match either at the A national level or at the U-21 representative level. Vicente Miera had prepared the list of players of the Spanish national team who had to travel to Tirana, but he declared that the trip was almost impossible. "I'm very afraid - he declared - The hotel where the Spanish national team was supposed to gather was robbed. People are hungry and anything could be expected. The best thing to do is not to travel, but..." explained Jesus Pareda, then coach of the Spanish U-21 national team.
Spain with 200 KG of food
With everything ready to board the plane, the day before the match a fax arrived from UEFA's legal department. "The situation in Albania is tense and the behavior of the population is unpredictable. It is therefore not possible to predict how events may develop. The UEFA committee will decide if, when and where these matches will be played finally". At Madrid's "Barajas / Barahas" airport, 200 kilograms of food that was being taken had to be recovered.
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