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Spain Football World Cup: Spain beats Kosovo in Football WC qualifier marred by a diplomatic row

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Spain Football World Cup: Spain beats Kosovo in Football WC qualifier marred by a diplomatic row

Spain came away with a 3-1 victory over Kosovo in a World Cup qualifier on Wednesday that caused a stir, especially off the field, as the Spaniards failed to recognize the visitors. The match in Seville was played according to UEFA protocol, with Kosovo's national anthem played before the game. On television, however, the Spanish state broadcaster defied normal etiquette by not mentioning Kosovo as a country and using the lowercase letter kos in the picture.

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Spain does not recognize Kosovo's independence from Serbia in 2008. Even before the tournament, the Spanish federation had angered Kosovo officials by calling Kosovo a territory. The Kosovar federation warned that it would not participate in the tournament unless Spain promised to respect the Balkan country's sovereignty. But television commentators called the opponents the Kosovo Federation team and used phrases like Kosovo Federation players. In the screen graphics of the hosts in Spanish, ESP uses capital letters - as it did in the previous qualifiers of both countries - while the visitors have been using lowercase Kos.

The public broadcaster TVE did not immediately respond to a query about why lowercase letters were used for Kosovo in the graphic. The Spanish media reported that the international signal that was sent out showed KOS in capital letters. There was also a lot of talk about a player who played only a few minutes: Spain's Captain Sergio Ramos was once again not in the starting lineup and was substituted just before the end. That was still enough for 180 caps, putting him four behind the record for most caps in men's soccer held by former Egypt captain Ahmed Hassan.

Dani Olmo opened the scoring for Spain in the 34th minute, Ferran Torres added to his tally in the 36th minute, and Kosovo equalized in the 70th minute through Beza Halimi's long-range shot after Spain goalkeeper Unai Simon lost the ball while trying to kick it out of the box. Gerard Moreno sealed the win for Spain in the 75th minute off a corner kick. Luis Enrique again made some changes to Spain's lineup but left Ramos on the bench for the second game in a row.

Ramos said it's always important to step up (performances), whether it's for a minute, a whole game, or just a half. Ramos recently returned from a lengthy injury but played the first half of the team's opener against Greece. It was a technical decision, Luis Enrique said." He is recovering from his injury. I decided that the others should play and that was it. He is a great leader and deserves to halt all records. The better-conditioned players will play. I don't care what people will say. Everything that has to do with Sergio will be controversial.

La Roja started their qualifying campaign with a disappointing home draw against Greece and a hard-fought win against Georgia. The win put Spain top of Group B with seven points from three games. Zlatan Ibrahimovic's Sweden is second with six points and one game less. Greece remained in third place with two points, one more than Georgia, after a 1-1 draw in its other group game on Wednesday. Kosovo, playing its second World Cup qualifier, remained bottom of the group with no points. Its first game was a 3-0 home loss to Sweden.  Only the group winner qualifies directly for the Qatar Football World Cup 2022.

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