Spain vs Kosovo certainly had plenty of needle.While we don't like to get too bogged down in politics when it comes to football, it was almost impossible to escape the broader narratives that surrounded Wednesday's World Cup qualifier.The moral of the story is that the Spanish government's failure to acknowledge Kosovo as a country has led to some eye-opening examples of Las Roja's media essentially snubbing their opponents.

Political build-up

Besides, curious footage of Kosovo coaches protesting with a Spanish journalist who failed to name-drop the 'nation' they were representing in a press conference was just the tip of the iceberg.

In fact, images emerged on social media showing Spanish television broadcasts where annotations of Kosovo were written in lower case as a thinly-veiled criticism of their sovereignty.

However, let's park those political undertones for a second because no matter your opinion on the wider issue, it was football and football alone that settled events on the pitch this week.

Spain 3-1 Kosovo

And although Spain eventually emerged 3-1 victors, courtesy of goals from Dani Olmo, Ferran Torres and Gerard Moreno, Kosovo still gave a great account of themselves in Seville.

After all, there was a brief five-minute spell in which Kosovo were just one goal away from drawing level at Estadio de La Cartuja with Besar Halimi bringing the scores to 2-1 in the second-half.

That fact alone would be incredible for a national team that was only officially established in 2014, but the manner in which the goal was scored made it even more astonishing.

Halimi's incredible strike

That's because Halimi gave an absolute masterclass in how to undermine a sweeper-keeper by scoring from miles out when Unai Simón bungled a clearance after rushing out of his goal.

By the time the ball had completely escaped the control of Athletic Bilbao's shot-stopper, the strike was there to be had, but finding the net from so far out was never going to be easy.

But even with half of Spain's defence dashing back to the goal-line to try and preserve their clean sheet, the Kosovo international still executed a sensational strike that you can check out here:

Is it Wayne Rooney? Is it Xabi Alonso? Is it David Beckham? No, it's Halimi.

A goal of pure brilliance

Let's make one thing clear: scoring from just a few yards away from the halfway line is stunning at the best of times, but there was something about Halimi's strike that made it all the more special.

Besides, when you take a step back and really look at the trajectory of his strike, you'd be hard-pressed to argue that he could have weighted and placed the shot any better.

If he takes on that shot another 99 times then each effort would probably ping off the crossbar, drift over or land short enough to be cleared. The real effort, however, was that one-in-100 masterpiece.

And while I doubt that politics were on the minds of the players during the game, Kosovo certainly reminded Spain that they're a quality football team whether Las Rojas think they're a country or not.