Albanian football fans snapped spaghetti in front of Italians in an amusing exchange ahead of their Euro 2024 clash in Dortmund. The two teams met in Group B in Germany tonight (Saturday).
Viral footage on social media showed both sets of supporters congregating in Germany before the game. Albanian fans were seen snapping a pack of spaghetti in a good-humoured moment.
Referencing the Italians’ love of pasta, an Albanian man approached a group of Italy supporters who had gathered outside a bar in Dortmund. He placed his hands on each end of a pack of spaghetti and began to snap it in half.
Joining in with the joke, one Italian fan dropped to his knees and placed his hands on his head.
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The Albanian man continued to approach the Italian group and finished snapping the spaghetti. He then threw the remains into the air. Italian supporters cheered as the spaghetti snapped.
Italy are the reigning champions of the European Championship but go into the tournament with a largely different core of players to the squad that defeated England in 2021. Long-serving defenders Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini have both retired from international duty.
A chaotic qualifying campaign saw Luciano Spalletti replace Roberto Mancini midway through their Group C matches. They finished runners-up behind England, with the Three Lions winning both matches against the Italians.
Spalletti was forced to deny reports that he had banned his squad from using PlayStations in Germany. It was claimed that one player had missed out on their crunch qualifier against Ukraine after he was deemed to have not slept due to a night playing on the console.
"Sometimes I'm very sad and disappointed to come here and comment on things I haven't said. I'm not bothered about what they do, but I don't allow them to spend all night being up." Spalletti said on Friday.
"I have nothing against any type of game. We have created a games room where there are two PlayStations there. Everyone goes there, I have had a go on it myself.
"But they can do that within the right time of day. I don't think it's acceptable [if] they're awake until 3 or 4 a.m., you need to sleep at night. We need to impart a correct lifestyle during matches. It's not fair and not true that I said we can't play PlayStation. I said we can't stay up until 3 or 4 a.m. That's different."
