Vardar gained a hard fought point away to Malmö in the first leg of the Champions League qualifications.
Vardar began with a small surprise in the starting eleven as Besar Iseni made the start, the rest of the starting line-up was as expected. Gachevski opened on goal, Hambardzumyan, captain Grncharov, Novak and Demiri in defense, Spirovski and Nikolov in defensive midfield, Juan Felipe in attacking midfield, Iseni and Barseghyan on the wings, while Boareto played up front. Probably coach Goce Sedloski introduced Iseni instead a real winger to strengthen the team defense.
Malmö started furious, thus Vardar looked shaky in the opening ten minutes. Vardar’s first chance came from nowhere through Boareto, but his shot missed barely the goal. The Macedonian side had just one more oppurtunity in the first half and again it was the Brazilian international, but this time his shot was wide off the goal. The hosts mainly dominated and Vardar was happy to enter the half-time break without a conceded goal. At the start of the second half, defensive midfielder Gligorov was introduced for Iseni to avoid more pressure on Vardar’s goal. Still, Malmö continued to attack constantly the visitors goal. Nevertheless, it was Vardar who opened the score in the 63rd minute. Boareto took a shot from just outside the box, but the bad shot ended up at Boban Nikolov who netted with a nice right-footed shot from inside the penalty area. Malmö needed just a couple of minutes to overwhelm this shock and was able to made even more pressure than before in the upcoming period. Their effort brought them an equalizer 15 minutes from time when Franz Brorsson headed home Eikrem’s free-kick. Malmö had some chances to collect even three points, but Vardar was the more lucky side and was able to avoid the defeat.
Highlights from the game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57t_pShy2_g
The draw away to the Swedish champion is a good result for Vardar, but the side from Skopje has to play much better in the second leg in Strumica to eliminate Malmö. Malmö frittered away a lot of good oppurtunities and probably that won’t happen again for a second time in a row. Maybe Sedloski should try a more offensive line-up to take away that much pressure from the defense. Despite the streaky appearance this point should give Vardar more self-confidence.