Goran Pandev’s academy today won promotion from the second to the best Macedonian league. With five rounds left, Akademija Pandev mathematically secured at least the second place thanks to the win over Tikvesh in Kavadarci.
A very young club, formed in 2010 as an academy for young players, in the season 2014/15 they decided for the first time to compete on a senior level. They started in the fourth Macedonian league, the OFL Strumica where they won the league in their debut season and went on to the 3.MFL East. They dominated even there and with 20 wins out of 22 games won the league and got promoted to the second league. Today they celebrate the historic promotion to the first league.
Akademija Pandev needed a win in Kavadarci and also Novaci not to celebrate in Turnovo. Pandev’s boys did their job, beat relegation struggling Tikvesh with 3:1, while Novaci played a 2:2 draw with Turnovo.
Promotion candidates Skopje celebrated a lone goal win away to bottom-placed Teteks. Vardar failed to beat Vlazrimi 77 in a must win game that instead of Negotino was played in Gevgelija as FFM banned their home stadium due to poor conditions.
The most interesting game was played between Gorno Lisiche and Metalurg. The hosts had a 2:0 lead on half time, after the break Metalurg equalized, the Vulpines again took the lead with the visitors saving a point in the last minute.
Round 22 results:
Gorno Lisiche – Metalurg 3:3 (2:0)
11′ Andrian Chavoli, 20′, 84′ Blagoja Spirkoski – 58′, 90′ Ivo Janakievski, 63′ Teodor Fidanoski
Turnovo – Novaci 2:2 (2:0)
12′ Edin Mersovski, 23′ Trajche Efremov – 54′ (pen) Blagojche Markovski, 65′ Blagoja Naumoski
Teteks – Skopje 0:1 (0:0)
63′ Dario Desnikj
Tikvesh – Akademija Pandev 1:3 (0:1)
48′ Igor Lazarev – 6′, 87′ Jani Atanasov, 54′ David Atanaskoski
Vardar (N) – Vlazrimi 77 0:0