It was yesterday the most awaited day from the Italian supporters: the day of the debut of blue in the final phase of these Europeans. The day of Italy – Albania.
Arrived at Dortmund the spectacle of red shirts and flags left no room for misunderstanding: Albanian fans were everywhere. Nearly 50,000 double-headed eagle supporters filled the city streets and stadium to support their team. The Italians were around 10,000many of whom reside in Germany (many of southern origin, some with serious difficulties in conversing in Italian) or foreign sympathizers of Italy (I met Australians, Americans, Dutch who, for many reasons, had decided to wear the blue shirt to support the national team).
My diplomatic attempts at pre-match dialogue with the Albanian fans were of little avail, the answer was always the same: «We are friends, but not today». He was seen and heard. Every time the blue team took the ball, boos rained down, on the contrary every time (fewer times to be honest) that the Albanian footballers phrased, they were driven by deafening cheering. In short in the stands the Albanians beat Italy 5-1. Luckily, despite the Albanian visual and sound dominance, on the pitch our 11 turned the situation around by winning the match 2 goals to 1, even if that goal by Bajrami a few seconds from the start he made more than one blue supporter go askew for German beer.
After the match, fortunately, the tone returned to being more relaxed and red and blue shirts found themselves celebrating together as it is done in these parts: around a beer, or rather two, let’s make it three. I saw the Germans and Scots do the same thing the day I arrived. This relationship of respect and rivalry between the fans on the German streets is one of the most beautiful things about this event, a beautiful message of brotherhood between peoples that has never been more necessary than in this historical period.
