TIRANA, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Albania beat Northern Ireland 1-0 in a friendly on Wednesday night.

Albania's Ervin Skela scored with a fine 25-yard free-kick into the top corner of the net at the 28th minute.

Both sides then had chances to score in the rest of the match but they lacked the cutting edge to find the back of the net.

The home side carried the lead until the end of the game.

The match was played at the Qemal Stafa Stadium in Tirana on a water-sogged pitch resulted from days of rains.