Facing each other again: Granit and Taulant Xhaka meet in the Champions League

Three and a half months after facing each other in the 2016 Euro defending the colors of Switzerland and Albania, the Xhaka brothers met again on Tuesday night on a soccer field, this time in London, on the pitch of the Emirates Stadium for the Champions League.

After becoming the first brothers to face each other in the history of the continental tournament, in the first round of Group A, Granit and Taulant coincided on the green of the modern London stadium: the former with the shirt of Arsenal and the latter defending the colors of Basel in their Champions League clash.

The parents of the Xhakas, Elmaze and Ragip - both witnessed the match live in London -, Albanian-Kosovars, fled Kosovo for Switzerland in 1990 due to the situation in the Balkans. Taulant, the older of the brothers, chose to defend the colors of Albania, despite having played from the ages of 17 to 21 in the lower categories of the Swiss national team.

On the other hand, Granit, 24 years old, did not change his initial choice and, despite the offers from the Albanian Federation, decided to continue playing for Switzerland. After shining in the Bundesliga with Borussia Monchengladbach, the team he joined at the age of 19, the younger of the brothers made the leap to Arsenal last summer, one of the 'big' clubs in Europe.