maybe_next_year

Brilliant to see such a fantastic crowd but hardly surprising. Surprised the BBC didn't make more of it before the game. To give a bit of context, to anyone who isn't aware. When a huge number of ethnic Albanians fled Kosovo during the war in the late 90s a lot ended up in Germany (almost half a million) , hence why so many are present. Given the huge crimes committed against ethnic Albanians during the war, it explains why those outside of Albania tend to be so proud to be Albanian. Many ethnic Albanians from North Macedonia & Albania have also moved to to Germany during the 90s (IIRC Shokran Mustafi's family were from Tetovo in North Macedonia and he posed with the World Cup trophy while making the Albanian eagle symbol with his hands). This game is particularly important given Albania's link to Italy. Following the fall of Communism in Albania, a HUGE amount of Albanians fled to Italy by sea (a decent amount fled to Italy during communism too). Those that broke into the Italian embassy to claim asylum in the early 90s are part of the spark that ended the communist regime in Albania too. it is still a place where a huge number of Albanians live and work (rich Albanians also travel to Italy for healthcare/education etc too). Albania was also occupied by Italy under Mussolini, the main street in Tirana and many of the buildings on it we're built by Italians. Therefore, Italian is the most common second language among the older generation. There is also an older, more traditional Albanian community in southern Italy, the Arbereshe. It is also one of the few places in the world where the Premier League is not the biggest foreign league too. Serie A is probably the most popular league, until betting was banned (in 2019, online betting is now legal again) Albania was full of betting shops which showed every Serie A game.

Not two nationalities you want to get mixed up there

See Scotland's prep is going well. 0-0 with Gibraltar at half time

Rio really adding value there to the commentary

Love the old fashioned crests that are similar to coat of arms, which may come from a slightly biased view. Shout out to the Shrewsbury Town lion, which has just watched you take the last you take the last good one in a box of Quality Street, leaving only the coconut ones left.

Google Olympiacos. Nice touch for them winning.

It shouldn't take Newcastle fans too much to agree with you there. You only need to look at us this( or do we call it last now) season to see how quickly injuries/fatigue from those extra games can mount up and leave a week back up exposed. At least you have a historically better academy, so much more chance of you throwing a few kids in the mix should the worst happen.

Howay Pep, 2-0 up and Arsenal losing, time to rest some players for the final

Joelinton gan radge

I know its easy to take the piss out of Arsenal for that but it's got to be pretty expected right? Very slim chance of it happening but there is a chance. On an organisational front, they've got to be prepared for that eventuality in what is one of the richest competitions in world sport. When we won the title with Rafa on the last day as opposed to Brighton despite being 7 points behind with 3 games to go, we had a display board ready to go and you can bet they'd had a practice run of putting it up before a ball was kicked on the final day.

So important for us. As adequate as Burn and Kraft have been (for fourth and fifth choice centre backs) it's on the ball that makes such a difference. So often when the back four had the ball, they were slow and ponderous and passed between themselves, allowing Man U to get into a solid shape. They just let Burn and Kraft have the ball with little to no pressure and you could see why. Whereas Schar's ability to ping a ball instantly across field opens up so many more gaps.

Quality finish

They're hear for the taking, just need to be clinical

world class save, mild applause. It is really odd.

Thought the magpie was brilliant. The sun was shining in just the wrong place at the wrong moment and made the Gallowgate hard to make out on the TV.

Not sure how people are writing off Europe when us not qualifying requires both Chelsea and Man U to win 4 more points than us in only 3 (for us, 2) games.

Barnes has been off the pace since coming on.

Fair play Murphy, don't win the raffle if you don't buy a ticket

Is it just me or does this seem like a very long half time?

At least Spurs are currently behind too.

Would love Anderson to finally score. Surprised to see Murphy continue over Barnes but he had a great game last time, so no complaints.

Always rated the bloke.... by which I mean I thought he was a decent striker for the £3million we paid for him, not that I expected to see him scoring in the Champions League semi final

Sit doon Steve, you were past it before you joined us

So easy

That was such a dreadful corner to start with too