Nothing is a game with Serbia.

For the Manaj projectile, for Leskovci as an example of the policies of expelling Albanians, for Gjimshiti who carries the wound of assimilation on his shoulders, and for the confrontations with Serbia that are never just a game.

Nothing with Serbia is a game. Not even the World Cup qualifiers. 

Therefore, tonight's football match was also a war. Like all previous ones. A war won in a state that aims to exterminate Albanians and in a city that is an example of policies of expelling Albanians.

The Albanians won the war tonight in Leskovac, not far from the border with Kosovo. Manaj's projectile at the end of the first half, more than the goal net, shook Serbian pride. The stadium was silent, and for 45 minutes, Albanians were booed and chanted in chorus with slogans like "Kill the Albanian" and "Kosovo is Serbia." 

And, the Albanians who watched the match on TV, erupted in every corner where they live. And after the games ended, the streets were filled with fans - celebrating until after midnight.

That goal, scored on the land of those who still deny the existence of Kosovo, is symbolic, emotional and historic.

When Manaj raised his hands and made the eagle symbol, the entire stand erupted in anger. This gesture of pride and celebration with the national symbol is an insult to Serbia, because it is "provoked" by everything Albanian.

It was a moment that came close to the one we saw in Belgrade in 2014, when the red and black flag with the map of ethnic lands and portraits of two of the greatest national patriots appeared by drone over the heads of the Serbs in the stadium, forcing them to see what they have as poison. At that time, the match was interrupted, after the violence that was exercised against the Albanian players and Albania triumphed on the table with the official score 0 to 3. 

Tonight, the war ended. And it ended as it should have: with Albania's big 0-1 victory.
The symbolism is abundant in the hard-fought match.

After what happened a decade ago in Belgrade, Serbia moved the confrontation to Leskovac, about 45-50 kilometers from the border with Kosovo. In the Ottoman period, the city and its surroundings were populated by many Albanians and the territory belonged to the Sandzak, part of the Vilayet of Kosovo for several centuries. The dramatic influx occurred after the Serbo-Ottoman wars. Serbia annexed this part in 1878, and forcibly depopulated over 30-40 thousand Albanians, who today we know as “muhaxhires”. Those who remained were subjected to the process of assimilation. But the Albanian heritage is present in the toponyms, in the serbized surnames “Djimsiti/Gjimshiti”.

Berat Gjimshiti led our national team to victory in Leskovac. The captain of Albania bears the scars of the assimilation policies that Serbia applies to Albanians. The boy from Medvegja, a city between the border of Kosovo and Leskovac, still bears the official surname, Djimsiti, today. But, in the face of Serbia and anyone else when he plays for the national team, he wears the surname Gjimshiti on his jersey.

In the city not far from the border with Kosovo, for ninety minutes, the famous chorus "Kosovo is the heart of Serbia" echoed. An old song of Serbian nationalism that has not yet understood defeat. It is the cry of the people who still feel the injustice of the independence of those they burned, killed and expelled. 
But on the field, that call didn't change anything. Therefore, in each duel, it seemed as if the national team players were facing history. 

Serbia can cry all it wants about Kosovo, but it has already lost it on every front. It lost it on the battlefields of 1999, when it faced a small people who came up to it with rifles. It lost it in The Hague, when international justice documented the crimes. It lost it in diplomacy, when more than 100 countries recognized Kosovo as an independent state. It lost it in football, when the federation joined UEFA and FIFA. It lost it in sports in general, where it can no longer control either symbols or emotions. 

In every match against its neighbors, especially Croatia, Serbia feels the shadow of defeat. All those it once had under its yoke are now independent states. And now, when it faces Albania, Serbia faces the most bitter reflection of itself.

The media in Belgrade experienced the defeat as a wound. The headlines that erupted immediately after the match clearly show the shock caused by the victory. One media outlet called the epilogue of the match a “tragedy”, another wrote about “shame and catastrophe”. 

The coach also announced his resignation.

This, but also the reporting and reaction of the Serbs, revealed the hurt of the national feeling for yet another battle lost by the Albanians. It also shattered the old illusion that the Albanians are still “under” Serbia. Therefore, the loss for them was both emotional, but also political and symbolic. Because, whenever they face Albania, they do not have on the other side of the front only the Albanians of Albania within the administrative borders. They have those of the Valley, of Kosovo, of Macedonia and of Montenegro. They are boys who, together with the red and black jerseys, carry with them the history of the people who survived the assimilation policies.

This is why every match against Serbia is a battle in itself. 

Therefore, yesterday Xhaka and Shaqiri with Switzerland when they celebrated with an eagle after scoring against Serbia, and today Manaj after that projectile that silenced the Serbs, demonstrate revenge for those who do not live to see today's victories. For the burned houses, the refugee camps, the massacres. And, they show that, despite all that violence, this people has risen today.

Leskovci fell silent. The cries of "Kosovo is Serbia" died down. After the humiliation they received, they turned their spears inward. Curses and insults towards each other.

So, Serbia lost again today. They lost 3 points, and with them their dream of qualifying for the World Cup.
Kosovo is in the running to finish second in the group. With today's victory, so is Albania. So, the draw keeps both countries' hopes alive. 

And, alongside the hope of the World Cup, on the Leskovac field, under the stadium lights, the boys of the National Team showed that in the new century, Albanians cannot be stopped, even if you deny their existence, even if you aim to assimilate them, and even if you continue to feed hatred against them.

Tonight the Eagles showed that they fight. And they win.