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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Adam Payne

Albania force delayed to start France clash after Andorra national anthem is played by mistake

Albania refused to start Saturday's Euro 2020 qualifier against France after the wrong national anthem was mistakenly played.

The visitors at the Stade de France were expecting to sing along to their national anthem, Himni i Flamurit, prior to the start of the game, however in a gaffe the Andorran was played instead.

Other reports suggested that it was Montenegro's but it was Andorra's and to make matters even worse the apology that was made on the PA system was to Armenia and not Albania.

Unsurprisingly, the away side weren't impressed with the mix-up and refused to proceed until their anthem was heard.

The issue was raised with the referee and officials, with kick-off delayed until after the correct anthem had been played, and, after some berating from the officials, the correct tune was played and the match finally got underway.

The overall delay to the start of the game was around seven minutes in the end.

However, France didn't allow the bizarre mistake to distract them from the task at hand.

The reigning world champions were leading within eight minutes as Bayern Munich's Kingsley Coman fired Les Bleus in front after a delightful pass from Raphael Varane.

Olivier Giroud added a second on 27 minutes as he swept home Theo Hernandez's pinpoint cross.

Antoine Griezmann should've made it three from the penalty spot 10 minutes later, but smashed his shot off the crossbar.

Coman added a third with just over 20 minutes to go, after Griezmann found the winger in the box.

France are currently in the driving seat to qualify in top spot for next summers competition.

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