Macedonia - Croatia 2:0

Saturday, 17 November 2007 23:02 News - National Teams

Great victory for the Macedonian national football team. On almost impossible for play pitch conditions, Maznov and Naumoski scored the first Macedonian win over a Top-10 FIFA ranked country and also the first defeat for Croatia after 23 qualification matches.

Everybody was happy after the EURO 2008 qualification match from the group E between Macedonia and Croatia. Macedonia won the match and Croatia despite the defeat qualified for the EURO 2008 after Russia was defeated in Israel. The 4th position in the group E was unreachable for Macedonia, but that didn't effect on the motivation of the players and with the good performance in the 2nd half, Macedonia defeated the 10th ranked team on the FIFA ranking list. Maznov in the 71st and Naumoski in the 79th minute scored the goals for Macedonia, on the match that was played on almost impossible pitch conditions because of the heavy rains in Skopje in the last few days before the match.

Macedonia: Milosevski; Noveski, Sedloski^^, Mitreski; Popov, Lazarevski, Grozdanovski, Shumulikoski; Tasevski; Naumoski^, Maznov.
^Naumoski out 85th minute, Polozani in
^^ Sedloski out 89th minute, Grncarov in.

Croatia: Pletikosa, Simic, Simunic, Kovac, Korluka; Srna, N. Kovac, Modric, Kranjcar***; Petric*, Eduardo**.
*Petric out 42nd minute, Mandzukic in.
**Eduardo out 54th minute, Olic in.
*** Kranjcar out 75th minute, Vukojevic in.

Macedonia (0:0) 2:0 Croatia

Goalscorers: Maznov 71st, and Naumoski 79th minute.

MacedonianFootball.com' live report:

After the 45 minutes, and despite the 0:0 scoreline, one team is happy. Croatia are definitely qualified for EURO 2008 after Russia lost to Israel with 2:1. Regarding to this game, not a lot has happened considering the awful pitch conditions. A moment worth mentioning is the 33rd minute, when Pletikosa made bad save after a cross from the right, but Naumoski couldn't make the most of the situation. On a negative note are the small fights between the police and the Croatian fans situated on the Northern platform. However, such thing was unavoidable as the fans started making small mess. Everything is under control, now. Let's hope that the Macedonians can use the fact that Croatia are already qualified and the possible fall of motivation, and we can make the last victory at home in this qualification tournament. Stay tuned for a full-time report.

Glory, joy and pride! After the bad streak of 3 years without a win on 'Gradski', Macedonia has made 2 consecutive wins. The last one against a team that in recent years is in the top of European football. Though we haven't started the second half as we all wished and Mitreski had to save Eduardo's shot after Milosevski has already been beaten. But, that seemed like a wake-up call for Macedonia. They started playing better, and after one great build-up play with a neat one-two between Maznov and Tasevski, the first one managed to unleash great shot which ended in the lower-right part of the goal behind Pletikosa's back. While the visitors were still in shock and only 8 minutes later, it was Naumoski who added to the joy amongst the fans. Naumoski has been very watchful and from inside the box managed to make a shot, and make this victory even greater for the hosts. After this 90 minutes, both teams are happy. Visitors will travel to Austria and Switzerland and Macedonia managed to win over a contestant in EURO 2008.

Video highlights from the Macedonia-Croatia (2:0) match: