Albania vs Israel was supposed to be a friendly, but ended up being anything but.
The two teams played an exhibition match in Tirana on Thursday night but without much hype.
Only 6,600 turned out at the 22,500 capacity arena, and pre-match those in the home crowd booed the Israeli national anthem.
The game remained scoreless up until the 73rd minute when Ajax’s Oscar Gloukh netted the winner, and clearly hadn’t gotten over the boos.
He went and shushed the home fans and kissed the Israel crest on his shirt, a gesture that saw him shoved by Lazio’s Elseid Hysaj.
A scuffle then broke out between the two teams, showing a surprise amount of tension in the air.
Speaking post-match, Gloukh gave his take.
“I couldn’t ignore the boos during the national anthem,” he said.
“We weren’t expecting it; it was just a friendly. I was fired up from the start, and with the emotion and the goal, that was my final reaction.
“I have no regrets.”
Leave a Reply