The Football Federation of Macedonia (FFM) announced today that the U21 national team will play friendlies with its counterparts from Portugal and the Netherlands.

The friendlies will be used as preparation for the U21 qualifiers which are set to resume in May.  The Macedonian U21 national team will first face Northern Ireland on 10 May in a qualifier that was originally scheduled for 29 February but the match was ultimately moved back to 10 May due to the freezing conditions back in late February.  The game against Northern Ireland will be played in Kumanovo.

After that important match, from 22-25 May, the U21 national team will participate in the “Challenge Cup” in the Austrian city of Innsbruck where they will be joined by its counterparts from the Netherlands, Albania and Ukraine.  In that span of four days, Macedonia will face the Netherlands on 22 May and then square off against Albania on 25 May.  Those matches will serve as preparation for the two important qualifiers in early June against Faroe Islands and Denmark, respectively.

Then, on 16 August, the Macedonian U21 national team will face Portugal U21 in a friendly on the road.  That match would be utilized as preparation for the final two U21 qualifiers in September against Northern Ireland and Serbia, both on the road.

Macedonia U21 currently finds itself in third place of Group 4 in the UEFA U21 qualifiers.  Macedonia has compiled five points in three games and trails the leader Serbia by six points, although Serbia has played two more games up to this point.