After one week without domestic matches because of the national team match, the championship returns with the third round. And in the third round - Vardar against Pelister on Gradski in Skopje.
Saturday 23rd of August 16.30 CET Gradski Stadium in Skopje. The best all-time Macedonian derby will take place. Vardar will host Pelister. Both teams have 3 points collected so far but that is from one match only as both teams were free in one of the rounds. Vardar has played the first competitive match on 3rd of August when they won over Pobeda in the first round and since then they hadn't played another official match. They had several friendlies (against Dinamo Vranje 1-1 and against Madzari 2-0) in order to keep the tempo. Pelister had a winning but not convincing start. They have won against Turnovo Horizont in the second round with 2 late goals. Similar to Vardar, the visitors have as well played two friendlies (Dinamo Tirana 0-0 and Pobeda 3-3). The last meeting between these two gets back to 26th of April 2008 when Pelister celebrated a 1-3 victory on Gradski. But, this Vardar right now is a lot different. Stronger, financially more stable and first favourite to win the title. Consequently, they must be considered as facorites for this match as well. However, this is the biggest derby so nothing goes for granted. To sum up, no matter the outcome, excellent match is expected in the spirit of the real derby.
Champions Rabotnicki are visiting promoted Turnovo. After Babunski is in charge with the champions he still hasn't tasted the bitter side of a match , but at the same time he still hasn't felt the winning ways. 4 draws from 4 matches. This match is the chance to change that fact. Turnovo are no pushovers, but having seen their first two matches in the season, it seems like they will not have easy season and most probably will be somewhere around the last 4 places on the table throughout whole season. Of course it is still too early to tell, but that is the initial impression. Underestimation of the opponents, though, might mean another tough visit as Rabotnicki will be without several first-team players.
Makedonija Gjorche Petrov, another team with very good start of the season, will host the other newly-promoted team Metalurg. 'Lavovi' have started well and have demolished Turnovo in the first match with 4 goals in their net and in the second match on Gradski they've got a point from the derby against Rabotnicki though they leading for big part of the match. Their squad is almost completed and only minor injuries on couple of players produce worries but it is nohing serious. Metalurg has one point from the two matches played so far. They've lost when they visited Milano in the first round, but they took a point at home when they hosted Napredok. This should be another interesting match between the two Skopje teams with the hosts being the favourites for the victory.
Current vice-champions Milano will host Pobeda from Prilep. The hosts have collected 4 points from the first two matches, while Pobeda have lost the first two matches. Besides this, Milano are as well counted as favourites for this match because of the reason that they have more-or-less kept the squad from the last season and plus got several new players and once again they will be one of the biggest favourites for the top of the table. Pobeda have started badly and they should be looking to turn things around, but this visit looks very tough.
In the last Sunday match, Napredok will host Sileks. This match always holds much interest as these two teams can not be separated by many fans. And not only this season, but several seasons in the past as well. Both teams are near that 9th place that leads to play-out match throughout whole season and maybe their mutual matches are the most important. Of course, it is way too early to discuss about the possibilties for May 2009 and the final standings, but looking at both teams squads some things might become inevitable.
The biggest derby Vardar - Pelister will take place on Saturday at 16.30, while all other matches are scheduled for the day after at the same kick-off time. Renova is the free team in this round. Online bookmakers should open this market very soon, so dont forget to check the odds at Bwin, 10BET, Bet-at-home etc. Meanwhile, join our FORUM and share your thoughts for the macedonian football.
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