UEFA EURO 2016 (Lyon)

Sunday 19th June 2016
UEFA Euro 2016 Group A
Stade de Lyon
Romania 0-1 Albania
Attendance: 49,752

Saturday was a football free day so I spent time looking at the sights of Bordeaux, such as the Pont de pierre and, naturally, some excellent bars such as the Frog and Rostbif, Houses of Parliament and Le Mashup before heading onto Lyon in the evening. 

Lyon is a beautiful city, the narrow streets of the old town are particulary spectacular. You can walk through doors (traboules) to hidden streets and courtyards. It really is something to behold. I really must make another trip to the city to try and take in some more of the sights.

The ground is around 10km out of the city and, due to delays in construction, was only opened as recently January 2016. It is home to Olympic Lyonnais and replaced the Stade de Gerland which had been their home since 1950. The ground has a capacity of 58,000 and I would estimate over half that capacity this evening were Albania fans.

I was lucky enough to be in amongst the Albanian fans, and they were fanatical in support of their team. They created a superb atmosphere and I defy any critics of the expansion to 24 teams to say it has not added value to the proceedings. By the end of the match it was very hard to resist shouting "Shqipëria" with the Albanian supporters.

Albania recorded their first major tournament win with a 1-0 victory over Romania. Armando Sadiku scored the only goal of the game when he headed past keeper Ciprian Tatarusanu after 43 minutes. There were absolute scenes when the ball hit the back of net.

The closest Romania came to equalising was when a Florin Andone shot came back off the bar. On the balance of play though there can be no complaints with the result as Albania defended heroically to preserve their lead.

However the result, though it took three days for confirmation, was not enough to see Albania through to the knockout stages. Their fans will be a huge miss to the tournament.