Macedonia survived Ghent and the full offensive of the strong Belgian team and played 0:0 in the World Cup qualifier to stay on the table top.
photo by FFM: Stefan Ashkovski battles with Maxim De Cuyper
Coach Blagoja Milevski started with Stole Dimitrievski between the posts, Vuisar Musliu, Gjoko Zajkov and Andrej Stojchevski in the back with Ezgjan Alioski and Stefan Ashkovski as wing backs, in the midfield Jani Atanasov, Enis Bardhi and Tihomir Kostadinov, while Elif Elmas behind striker Bojan Miovski.
As soon as the referee signaled the start, the Belgians rushed into attack. A full offensive was played for 45 minutes in front of the Macedonian box, but the Macedonians closed well, not allowing Dimitrievski to intervene even once.
Belgium had their most serious chance in the 23rd minute when Trosard, Salemakers and Doku shot three times in a row from inside the box, but Zajkov, Atanasov and Stojchevski blocked them each time. Macedonia did not even have a single shot before the break.
At half-time Milevski took Ashkovski out as he got booked and had tough job in marking Jeremy Doku. Darko Churlinov took his place.
The pressure of the home team continued in the second half, and they managed to land several shots. In the 54th minute, De Bruyne shot with his left foot from about 17 meters, but Dimitrievski well saved. In the 61st minute, Doku penetrated from the left, but only at the feet of Stole. A minute later Openda was excellently served by Vanaken on the right, he went out alone on the five-meter box, but Dimitrievski saved again.
Three minutes before regular time Despotovski counterattacked from the right and sent a cross towards Ristovski, but the latter missed the ball with his head for the first concrete chance. The next minute Fofana fired a powerful shot from about 20 meters from the right, but again the Macedonian goalkeeper was concentrated.
Highlights:
Macedonia managed to get a point from the toughest road match in the group and kept the table top. However, keep in mind that both Belgium and Wales have a game in hand both are yet to play their second match against Liechtenstein, the group outsiders.
Macedonia will now face Kazakhstan in a must win match on Monday night in Skopje, while Belgium will travel to Wales.