Two teams featuring Macedonian internationals played today with more to come over the next two days.
Edin Nuredinoski and Stojan Ignjatov with their club Ethnikos Achnas took on Anorthosis, the club that was eliminated from the Europa League by Rabotnicki. However, Anorthosis is still considered one of the title contenders for this season and they collected a minimal 1:0 victory with new signing Jan Rezek scoring the only goal of the game in the 78th minute. For Ethnikos Achnas, Edin Nuredinoski played from the start at keeper and conceded that one goal that came following a corner kick. There was a lot of traffic in the box and Rezek was able to slot the ball to the back of the net. Meanwhile, Stojan Ignjatov also got the start for Ethnikos Achnas and played until the 60th minute when he was replaced by Ats Purje.
The other game today that involved a Macedonian international was the Apollon vs. Ermis game. Hristijan Kirovski signed with Apollon earlier in the summer and began today’s game on the bench before he entered the game in the 73rd minute replacing Portuguese striker João Paulo. Apollon defeated Ermis 2:0 to begin the season with a positive result. Kirovski was expected to start for Apollon until the Cypriot club signed João Paulo who managed to score 16 goals in the top division last year with Olympiacos Nicosia. The signing of João Paulo meant that Kirovski would be the second choice at centre forward to begin the season. Keep in mind that Kirovski was the top scorer of the Macedonian top division last year with 20 goals for FK Skopje and was the first signing for Apollon this summer.
Tomorrow, Bojan Markoski and Petar Milosevski with their club Enosis take on newly promoted side Aris Limassol. Markoski should start at CB as he is considered one of the key players for Enosis while Milosevski is expected to begin the season as the backup keeper to Georgi Petkov.
On Monday, APOEL and Ivan Trickovski take on AEK Larnaca in a matchup of two clubs that reached the group stages of the two major European competitions. APOEL reached the group stages of the Champions League while AEK Larnaca reached the group stages of the Europa League. With the game being on Monday, Trickovski will be one of the last players to join up with the Macedonian national team for preparations regarding the EURO 2012 qualifiers against Russia and Andorra.
Finally, also on Monday, Nikola Gligorov and Alki Larnaca travel to the Cypriot capital Nicosia to face Omonia. Gligorov recently joined Alki after his former club Ermis began having financial difficulties.