Stadiumi Laçi

It is a compact place.

You can walk from the pitch to the stands in a few steps. There is no track, no buffer zone, just the grass and the concrete.

The view from the higher terraces looks out over the rooftops of Laç and the flat agricultural land beyond. It is an open-air arena, exposed to the wind that comes off the mountains. The surface is natural grass, laid out cleanly between the white lines. The official capacity is listed at 2,271, a number that reflects the all-seater conversion. Before that, the place held thousands more, but the old standing areas were filled in and reconfigured.

KF Laçi has hosted their European qualifiers here, against opponents like Molde FK and NK Rudar Velenje. The matches are played under floodlights at night, the blue seats glowing in the artificial light. It is not a large stadium, but it fills up when there is a European game. The crowd is smaller than in the big cities, but they are closer to the action. The ground was rebuilt in 2010, and it has held its shape since then. It serves its purpose without trying to be anything more.