Friday: England 2-0 Malta, Wembley Stadium. Underwhelming England ease past Malta in a drab game at Wembley. The fact Gareth Southgate’s side failed to register a single shot on target in the opening hour against a team ranked 171st in the world is mitigated slightly by the knowledge that this match was essentially a dead rubber, after England qualified with two games to spare, safe in the knowledge that a point on the road against North Macedonia on Monday evening will be enough to seal top seeding for the Euro 2024 draw in early December. The thrill of anticipation of the draw, and the prospect of Germany next summer far exceeds the entertainment value under Friday night lights at the national stadium.

Saturday: A flight from Luton Airport to Tirana. For £20 one way. Admittedly it gets me the purgatory of the middle seat as I relish the prospect of visiting three new countries and capitals over the coming days. I am picked up by an old university friend that I haven’t seen in a long time at Tirana Airport – which incidentally is far more spacious and welcoming than the Seventh Circle of Hell that is Luton Airport. My mate gives me a massive bear hug and the years fall away.

We visit a raft of vibrant bars full of energy. The country is passionate about football and while we drink locally produced lager, Switzerland play Kosovo. The match ends in a 1-1 draw, which means the Swiss qualify for next summer’s jamboree in Germany. Both goals are celebrated in the pub, because, as my friend explains, Switzerland have players of Albanian and Kosovan descent. Not least former Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka. Whose family moved from the former Yugoslavia when tensions with the Serbs started to rise in 1990, and the country manufactured after World War I following the fall of the Austro-Hungarian empire, fractured in the early 1990s with such violent results in the years that followed.