Football

Yesterday Tirana was full of flags, the black and red of Albania, and occasionally the blue with stars of Kosovo. Albania were playing football with Portugal, or, as one female colleague put it, Ronaldo was in town. Unsurprisingly, Albania lost. But it was rather cruel, Portugal's winning goal coming in injury time. And despite being much the better team on paper, the Portuguese really did not impress. Ronaldo did not light up the match, in what would have been a dull, pedestrian game, were it not for the passion and determination of the Albanian underdogs. They deserved to get a result. Although the people in the bar where I watched the match did not seem too disappointed. No doubt it was expected.

But the really memorable thing was the camerawork. It seems that the TV cameras were practically among the fans. Frequently the pitch was partly obscured by their upraised arms, and every time something exciting happened the fans leaped up and those of us watching on TV had our view obscured by someone's head. For this reason we missed the first Portuguese goal altogether. How bizarre. The Albanians in the bar where I watched the game seemed to accept this cheerfully as quite normal. We foreigners couldn't help ourselves roaring with laughter. What a country!