Great 2:0 win for Vardar over Fenerbahçe, while Milan scored six to humiliate Shkendija at Giuseppe Meazza.
Vardar, lead by new coach Chede Janevski, wasn’t the better team this evening in Skopje, but was the only team that managed to find the back of the net. Fenerbahçe controlled the game, had far more possession and created more chances, but their players simply couldn’t score today. The visitors looked unmotivated and clearly had underrestimated the Macedonian champion.
The home players scored from their first real chance when Armenian national team player Tigran Barseghyan reacted well on a long ball, put Martin Škrtel out of game and easily scored past keeper Carlos Kameni. That happened in the 20th minute.
In the second half the play was the same, but this time Vardar managed to threaten few times as well. Things could have gone downhill in the very end of the match when Fenerbahçe was putting a huge preasure for an equallizer. It was the 89th minute when captain Boban Grncharov received his second yellow card, leaving Vardar with 10 men in the injury time.
Instead of making it 1:1, the visitors scored an own goal deep into the stoppage time awarding Vardar a great 2:0 win. It was a huge missunderstanding between Mehmet Topal and Idris Kameni that ended with a header own goal. Few moments later visitor Souza was also sent off.
Vardar has a great result, a two goals win without conceding a goal. This is the greatest chance so far for reaching the group stage of an UEFA competition. Surely it won’t be easy, esapecially without captain Grncharov, but we hope that these players learnt the København lesson.
National Arena Philip II of Macedon in Skopje
Vardar – Fenerbahçe 2:0 (1:0)
Goals: 20′ Tigran Barseghyan, 90’+2 (og) Mehmet Topal
Red cards: 89′ Boban Grncharov (V), 90’+3 Souza (F)
Vardar: 90. Gachevski; 23. Demiri (46′ 77. Brdarovski), 21. Novak, 6. Grncharov (c), 19. Hambardzumyan; 8. Spirovski, 20. Nikolov; 9. Blazhevski (85′ 16. Gligorov), 70. Juan Felipe, 10. Kojašević (67′ 7. Jigauri); 11. Barseghyan.
Fenerbahçe: 18. Kameni; 3. Kaldırım, 37. Škrtel, 5. Topal (c), 19. Özbayraklı (71′ 92. Chahechouhe); 28. Valbuena, 8. Tufan (82′ 4. Isla), 89. Souza, 17. Dirar; 7. Potuk, 39. Köse (64′ 99. Soldado).
Referee: Luca Banti (ITA)
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Shkendija was doomed even since the draw as they got Milan as an oponent. The Serie A giant won 6:0 tonight, scoring three goals in each half. This is the end of the great Europa League run for Shkendija this summer, but it was expected. Surely we were hioping for a more decent farewell than this humiliating, but we have to admit that Milan looks like from another planet for every Macedonian team.
Today Milan used every hole in the shaky defense of the Tetovo based team, meaning that these lads will have to put on a much better performance in the return lead as the stadium is already sold out. The fans will expect a more decent farewell.
Giuseppe Meazza stadium in Milano
Milan – Shkendija 6:0 (3:0)
Goals: 13′, 28′ André Silva, 25′, 85′ Ricardo Montolivo, 67′ Fabio Borini, 69′ Luca Antonelli
Milan: 99. Donnarumma; 31. Antonelli, 17. Zapata, 19. Bonucci (c), 12. Conti (69′ 20. Abate); 10. Çalhanoğlu (60. 5. Bonaventura), 18. Montolivo, 79. Kessie; 11. Borini, 9. André Silva, 8. Suso (75′ 63. Cutrone).
Shkendija: 1. Zahov; 13. Čeliković (64′ 21. Teqja), 6. Cuculi, 4. Bejtulai, 77. Todorovski; 8. Totre, 5. Alimi; 90. Abdurahimi (70′ 19. Bojku), 10. Hasani (c), 14. Radeski (82′ 25. Shefiti); 7. Ibraimi.
Referee: Harald Lechner (AUT)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwOxB46DguY