Greatest Games: Serbia 0 Albania 3, 2014

May 25, 2021, 01:04 AM

On this week’s Greatest Games, Nick Ames joins Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller to share his story from the abandoned Serbia v Albania 2016 European Championship qualifier.

Eyebrows were raised when the draw placed these two nations in Group I in February 2014. Political disagreements regarding Kosovo, which culminated during the Kosovo War, meant that tensions were bound to be high when the sides came to meet.

In Belgrade, when a drone flew into the Partizan Stadium carrying a nationalist flag depicting a map of ‘Greater Albania’, the Serbian crowd responded in fury – forcing the match to be abandoned by referee Martin Atkinson.

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About the panel:

Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to a number of publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored  Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.

Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.

Nick Ames is a football reporter for the Guardian.

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