8th of September 2007, Macedonia's independence day will also be football holiday. Macedonian national team is travelling to Russia, in order to meet 'Zbornaya' in EURO 2008 qualifiers. While we are practically with no chances for qualifying, Russia is in close race for one of the 2 first spots on the table, and will most certainly want the victory here.

Group E is definitely one of the most interesting and exciting groups in this qualifications tournament. Russia is currently third on the table with one point advantage over England and only two behind Croatia and Israel (Israel have played 8 games so far, while all other pretenders for first place 7). That's why the imperative for the hosts is nothing but the win. But, Macedonia has many times proven as a 'party-breaker'. We have many times played excellent away games against stronger opponents, like England and Netherlands. The fact we play better away from home, might made Russians think again.

Macedonian coach Srecko Katanec, will put Goran Pandev in the attack, a position which Pandev itself loves it. He will be with Stojkov and behind them most probably will be Darko Tasevski. Pandev as a striker is a new tactic and we all sincerely hope that it will be a winning one. Our net will be defended by goalkeeper Miloshevski and the defence will be standard one. Noveski/Vasoski, Mitreski and Sedloski will be the players that should be stopping Kerzhakov, Arshavin, Sychev... The midfield will most probably once again be our weaker link, but let's hope that they will be able to create several chances, and put Pandev and Stojkov in scoring opportunuties. Russia is the favorite, that goes without saying. However, Macedonia will once again travel to find a surprise and prove we are not to be considered such an underdogs.

The match will take place on the Lokomotiv stadium in Moscow in 19.00 local Russian time, or 17.00 local Macedonian time (GMT+1). Referee will be Tom Henning Øvrebø, and his assistants Erik Raestad and  Geir Age Hole, all from Norway. Once again, we wish good luck to our national team, and may the better win.