Football: last night the Albanian team defeated the team from the neighboring country by a score of 2–0. Thousands of fans are celebrating in the squares of Tirana and throughout Albania, waving the Albanian flag . Greece on its knees before Albania After the match, the national team’s footballers hoisted Prime Minister Meta onto their shoulders and celebrated in front of the National Stadium pages 2, 3, 4–5 Albanian fans celebrating the victory in the streets of Tirana Reuters

Albanian sport restored yesterday at the National Stadium a sense of dignity for all Albanians. The match between our national team and the Greek national team acquired, within the public spirit, the significance of an event that inspires and enhances national pride. The first words spoken by the boys of Albania after the victory were: “When we wear the shirt of our Homeland, everyone is our opponent.” And this victory is truly the triumphant realization of our values, those values which, in the current arena of world sport, compellingly bring our national authority and the dignity of our human worth to the fore. After this, we add something else to what we call a reference to our values. In this respect, yesterday’s football victory by our national team is crowned with an aura whose dimensions extend far beyond the perimeter of the National Stadium. Such triumphant reactions, though they come from the stadium, become a manifestation of the spiritual surge of national feeling and consciousness as a whole. More than unrestrained joy in the moments after the match, the waving of the national flag swept through the Albanian capital. This was a moment Albania had not experienced for a long time. Yesterday’s celebration on “Dëshmorët e Kombit” Boulevard was undoubtedly more meaningful and more massive. Albanians have always invested their dreams and readiness in such triumphs. But victories of this kind, carrying the true weight of affirmed dignity, once again give us the right to convey our true worth and virtues across the breadth of this world. The way this joy and enthusiasm were accompanied by civic conduct and respect for the defeated opponent once again brings us back to our national civilization and culture.