4pm 27 September 2025
Albania, Kategoria e Parë
Luftëtari Gjirokastër 1 Iliria Fushë-Krujë 2 (att 400)
Following our weekend in Albania's capital, Tirana, we headed south for a week-long stay on the coast at Sarandë. Gjirokastër is about an hour's drive from there, and my visit for football was three days after we'd been to do the tourist stuff.
You can get an excellent, if distant, view of the Stadiumi Gjirokastër from the historic castle that overlooks the delightful old town. The stadium is in the new town, which makes it only slightly easier to finding a parking place.
The original Luftëtari Gjirokastër club folded in 2020, but the name was revived as a fan-led phoenix club. AS Luftëtari have now reached the second tier of Albanian football.
Ahead of this game they'd drawn all four of their opening fixtures. They looked like keeping that run going until Iliria got a winner deep in stoppage time. Angry locals showered the celebrating players with a torrent of plastic water bottles and broken seats from the stand.
At some point between that and the final whistle, or maybe even during more heated scenes at the end of the game, Ilira had a player sent off. Not that it mattered to them as they celebrated with a small band of travelling fans.
It was a lively game throughout. Luftëtari thought they'd taken an early lead, only for the assistant referee's offside flag to rule it out. It didn't delay them for long though, as they scored a legitimate goal after 20 minutes.
Iliria equalised in first half stoppage time. The away side always looked a little more dangerous during an entertaining second period, but their late winner was still a surprise.
The Gjirokastër stadium is fairly typical of Albanian grounds built in the 1960s and 1970s, although it has been refurbished more recently. It's a bowl with steep terraced steps all around, with plastic seats on the main stand side which also provides the only cover.
Although tickets were plentiful and cheap (about £1.80) many opted to watch from outside, with a near perfect view through a fence surrounding the perimeter. In fact, the design of the fence makes it easy, for those slim enough and fit enough, to climb into the ground without the need for a ticket.
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