"We made the whole country happy. It is a win for all the Albanian people," said Ermir Lenjani, neatly summing up the feeling inside the camp when the final whistle blew to seal their historic success over Romania. 
The Kuq e Zinjtë (Red and Blacks) endured a rocky start to UEFA EURO 2016, conceding only five minutes into their opening game against Switzerland and losing captain Lorik Cana to a red card in the 37th minute, before performing admirably with ten men only to lose 1-0. That defeat was hard to swallow but fate had even crueller things in store for Albania’s second game against hosts France in Marseille. After defending heroically for 90 minutes, their back line was finally breached twice, first by Antoine Griezmann and then Dimitri Payet.
Then, in Lyon, came the Romania match and all the heartache was forgotten. "Even more symbolic than the victory was the fact that the boys reaped the rewards for all the hard work they have put in over the months and years," said captain Lorik Cana. "It won’t make missing the France match any easier though because I really wanted to play in it," he admitted, having been forced by suspension to sit out of the game against the country where he has spent a significant part of his career. "But the most important thing is we gave a good image of Albania," he said.
Since becoming a member of FIFA in 1932, Albania has had to wait over eight decades to finally qualify for a major tournament. Cana, who has been playing for his country since 2003, knows more than most how tough it is to make it to a FIFA World Cup™ or a EURO, which may explain why he is so ready to savour his country’s new-found success. "I don't know if this win beats qualifying for the tournament. It’s different," he said. "They are two special matches for sure. Qualifying was something no other team had achieved, so it was something historic,” said Cana,
Nothing to fear, everything to gainArmando Sadiku’s goal against Romania was certainly the stuff of legends. His 43rd minute header was perfectly placed over and across the keeper at the far post and set up a victory that was well deserved – especially as Albania refused to sit back and invite Romania on to them, despite have been on the painful end of much late heartbreak in recent times.
“We’ve had some really bad breaks in the final minutes of games,” said Cana, no doubt referring not only to the France encounter, but also to late goals conceded to Serbia and Portugal in qualifying. This time there was to be no dramatic ending though. Nothing was going to stop Albania on the night. "When I came on I told my team-mates nothing could stop us: ‘Don’t worry, nothing can go wrong', I said. ‘Everything will turn out alright just you watch’," joked Nantes central defender Cana, who came off the bench in the final minutes to see his team to victory
If Cana felt confident, the enthusiastic Albanian fans must have found the whole experience nerve-wracking to the extreme, right to the final whistle. "We’re really pleased we made people so happy. They were already proud of us but they wanted something to celebrate and we gave them the best possible gift," said Cana.
Whether the Albanian players and fans get to prolong their adventure in France will depend on results in the other groups. Albania finished third in Group A on three points and may yet make it into the knockout stages as one of the four best third-placed teams. Now that really would be an historic achievement.