Two men in Kosovo have pleaded guilty to planning terror attacks against the Israeli football team at a World Cup qualifier match in Albania last year.

Kenan Plakaj accepted a charge of making explosives after police found half a kilo of substances that could be used to make bombs at his house. Another man, Besart Peci, also pleaded guilty.

A third defendant facing trial is alleged to possess self-made explosives in his basement.

The court was told they were the same homemade style explosive that were used by terrorist in attacks in Paris and Brussels and have been found in foiled bombings in Europe.

The pair were arrested by police along with 17 other people in November on suspicion of having links toISIS and planning attacks in Kosovo and Albania. Nine of them were charged.

The prosecutor said some of them had been in contact with Lavdrim Muhaxheri, ISIS’s commander of Albanians in Syria and Iraq.

Police said Muhaxheri, who ordered them to plan an attack, was killed in June this year.

Israel defeated Albania 3-0 in the match, which was played amid heavy security on 12 November 2016.

The sentences for Peci and Plakaj have not been announced.