In the second to last game of the current U21 qualifications the young Macedonians won at home against Armenia.
photo by FFM: the starting 11
Coach Dragi Kanatlarovski made some changes compared to the last games and started the game with David Denkovski on goal, Adrian Hajdari, Jovan Manev, Mario Mladenovski and Blerton Sheji in defense, Sefer Emini, Florent Ramadani and Luka Stankovski in midfield, while Metodi Maksimov, Arbi Vosha and captain Marko Gjorgjievski were fielded in attack.
The score was opened by Armenia’s Erik Simonyan already in the 9th minute on a header, but Macedonia managed to equalize in the 22nd minute with a great goal from Metodi Maksimov.
Video of the Maksimov goal: pic.twitter.com/CuEoyoXCKV
— Football Macedonia (@MacedonianFoot_) June 2, 2022
Later in the second half it was Mario Ilievski who scored the lead with help of Luan Abazi’s assist, whereas Sefer Emini made the last goal of the game when he converted a penalty late in the 7th minute of stoppage time after a foul against Agon Elezi.
Macedonia – Armenia 3:1 (1:1)
Goals: 22‘ Maksimov, 85′ Ilievski, 90+7′ Emini – 9′ Simonyan
Macedonia: Denkovski; Hajdari, Manev, Mladenovski, Sheji; Emini, Ramadani (62′ A. Elezi), Stankovski (75′ Abazi); Maksimov (75′ Todorovski), Vosha (62′ D. Elezi), Gjorgjievski -C- (75′ Ilievski)
Macedonia can’t qualify anymore for the actual U21 EURO, so the focus slowly goes in direction of the new U21 generation which will be for players born in 2002 or later. The last game of the qualifications will take part in Istanbul, Turkey against Ukraine. After that game Macedonia will host Bosnia and Herzegovina for two friendlies in Skopje on the 10th and 12th June.