Football’s youngest nation Kosovo are on the brink of qualifying for their first ever World Cup and will achieve the remarkable feat with victory over Turkey in tonight’s playoff final.
Kosovo, who were only recognised by FIFA and UEFA a decade ago in May 2016, triumphed 4-3 over Slovakia in the semi-final after progressing comfortably ahead of both Slovenia and Sweden in qualifying Group B.
The world’s 78th-ranked nation will fight for their spot at this summer’s 48-team tournament at the Fadil Vokrri Stadium in Kosovo’s capital city Pristina on Tuesday night, facing a Turkey side who beat Romania 1-0 in their quarter-final.
Spearheaded by the strike partnership of Hoffenheim’s Fisnik Asllani and Mallorca’s Vedat Muriqi, Kosovo found no problem finding the net against Slovakia last Thursday, despite only scoring six goals in their six World Cup qualifiers prior.
Across Europe’s top five leagues, Muriqi is the sixth highest goal-scorer behind Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland, Igor Thiago and Deniz Undav, netting 18 goals in LaLiga for Mallorca.
Former Burnley and Ipswich Town goalkeeper Arijanet Muric and Juventus winger Edon Zhegrova are among the other recognisable names representing the young 1.6million nation.
Football’s youngest nation Kosovo are on the brink of qualifying for their first ever World Cup
They face Turkey in the playoff final tonight after beating Slovakia 4-3 last Thursday (above)
Kosovo striker Vedat Muriqi is the sixth highest goal-scorer across Europe’s top five leagues
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, although it has not yet been integrated into the United Nations despite more than 100 UN members recognising it as an independent country.
Russia, India, China and Brazil are among the countries who oppose Kosovo’s independence.
Kosovo were only permitted to play unofficial friendly matches before narrowly winning a vote at its general congress in 2016 to be admitted into Europe’s governing body UEFA, with only 28 of the 54 member nations voting in their favour.
Despite opposition from Serbia who fought to have the decision reversed, Kosovo kept their UEFA recognition and were admitted into world football’s governing body FIFA just 10 days later.
The country’s first match permitted by FIFA was a 0-0 draw with Haiti in March 2014. That same year, Kosovo played Turkey in a 6-1 defeat and still haven’t forgotten the respectful ‘gesture’.
Posting ahead of Tuesday’s crucial match, Kosovo football wrote: ‘Back in 2014, when no one would face us, Turkey showed up. They played Kosovo away, before we were even recognised by FIFA – a gesture of respect and love we will never ever forget. 12 years later… we’re on our way to a World Cup final.’
Kosovo’s head coach Franco Foda has called for calm ahead of what promises to be an emotional occasion for the tiny nation, which is roughly 40 times smaller than the United Kingdom in terms of population.
‘We have a stadium only for 13,000 spectators, but if it were possible, there would be 100,000,’ he said after last Thursday’s win over Slovakia.
‘On Tuesday we will have a historic game. We are in euphoria, but we need to play the last game with calm. In that case everything is possible.
‘We have emotional fans, but we must be careful and not allow ourselves to make mistakes.’
The World Cup playoff is also a huge night for Turkey, who have not qualified for the tournament since finishing third in 2002.
