The minnows just need to win a playoff against Turkey at home to complete a qualification campaign that has become a rallying cry for national pride
They are a World Cup fairytale, a footballing nation barely a decade old with fewer people than South Australia. A Balkan West Virginia, but with a fraction of the area, and a checkered past.
Minnows Kosovo are just one game away from their first appearance at a World Cup, and a place beckons in group D alongside Australia, Paraguay and co-hosts the United States.
All that stands in their way is a single, all-or-nothing playoff against Turkey at home in Pristina on Tuesday. It is a marvellous climax to a qualification campaign that has become a rallying cry for national optimism and pride.
Kosovo coach Franco Foda said Tuesday’s match would attract 100,000 people – close to half the number of residents in the capital Pristina – if the Fadil Vokrri Stadium was large enough to fit them all in. Unfortunately, its capacity is just 14,000, although 25,000 squeezed in for a 2007 performance by rapper 50 Cent in what was a significant moment of postwar healing.
