Macedonia disappointed in the friendly against Saudi Arabia losing despite taking the lead thanks to a beautiful bicycle kick goal by Trajkovski.
photo by FFM: debutante Luka Stankovski at the match
Coach Blagoja Milevski surprised everyone with the starting 11 deciding to rest the key players and giving a chance to other players. That is what friendly matches should be used for. Stole Dimitrievski started between the posts, Darko Velkovski, Nikola Serafimov and Visar Musliu in the defense, Ezgjan Alioski and Stefan Despotovski as wing backs, Luka Stankovski, Isnik Alimi and Jani Atanasov in the midfield, while Milan Ristovski and Aleksandar Trajkovski up front.
Saudi Arabia was better in the opening half. Al-Buraikan had the first attempt in the 21st minute when Dimitrievski made a save. Four minutes later debutante Stankovski tried, but Al-Sanbi saved. In the 32nd minute Al-Harbi had an effort on goal, but the Macedonian keeper was careful again.
The dead lock was broken four minutes before the break. Despotovski from right served Trajkovski on the far post and the experienced attacked with a bicycle kick scored a master piece goal.
Trajkovski’s goal:
Unfortunately Macedonia could not keep the lead to half-time. In the 45th minute Al-Buraikan easily beat Dimitrievski after being served in the box by Al-Shamat. In the injury time Al-Aboud forced Dimitrievski to make another save.
Milevski made three substitutions during the break, bring in Lirim Qamili, Bojan Ilievski and debutante Elmin Rastoder instead of Velkovski, Alioski and Trajkovski.
The tempo went a little bit down and after an hour of play Elif Elmas and Enis Bardhi were introduced, but they could not help Macedonia make a serious threat. Instead, the Saudis on counter attack were constantly pushing for a goal. Such an effort came in the 75th minute when Al-Shehri shot, but Dimitrievski saved and three minutes later Kano hit the woodwork.
In the 78th minute Bardhi made a terrible pass towards the Macedonian defense, the ball was taken by the Saudis and Al-Hamdan scored a nice goal for a 2:1 lead.
The goal woke up the Macedonians, but our lads could not break the Saudis’ defense. Instead, the Saudis were again forcing counter attacks, but the result remained unchanged.
Highlights:
This was the this match between Macedonia and Saudi Arabia and seconds defeat for Macedonia who is still without a win against this Middle Eastern team.
The national team is coming back to Skopje with a flight tonight, as tomorrow start the preparations for Sunday’s WC qualifier against Liechtenstein, a must win match.