The last match in this year will be the friendly game against Montenegro in Podgorica scheduled for 19.11.2008. After the dissappointing defeat against Iceland in the qualifications, this is a chance to finish this year in a more-or-less positive way.
Srečko Katanec has called 18 players for this match. The only new name is Dejan Miloseski from Lithuanian FK Vėtra Vilnus. However, the debutant for this match hasn't played a competitive football for 2 months. It remains to be seen whether the timing for calling up this player was correct as he has been neglected while he was at his best. All the other players are fully fit and today they will have the first training together in Montenegro. Petar Milosevski has given a statement for the football federation of Macedonia official web-site in which he said: ' The result against Iceland dissapointed us all, but there's no giving up. Only with good matches in continuity will we have good results and stay in the battle for the second place in the 9th group for WC 2010'.
Zoran Filipović, Montengrin coach, has called 19 players. He has also included one debutant in the squad, 29-years-old defender Miodrag Dudović. Considering that regular defenders Batak and Tanasijević are not included in the squad, it will not be wrong if we say that Filipović is making small experiments in the defense.
This is the first time these two teams meet. Macedonia hasn't lost a friendly match since March, 2006 when Bulgaria won 0-1. This match will be our opponents' 10th friendly game since their independence. In Podgorica, they have only lost against Sweden and they have won over Kazakhstan, Norway and Hungary.
It is a fact that Montenegro are not weak at all. Truly, they are only on the 115th position of the FIFA ranking list, but that is only because of the fact they are newly-formed independent national team. Their quality is much, much higher than the rankings suggest. Perhaps, that is the reason why Montenegro are set as favorites by the bookmakers. Odds are around 2.00 for the hosts' victory, while Macedonia is priced at around 3.50. The draw holds odds of around 3.20.
The match will be played on Podgorica City Stadium (capacity 17.000 people) and the kick-off time will be 17.30 CET.
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