ELQ: Dudelange eliminates Shkendija (Video)

Another disgraceful performance by the Macedonian champions who got out of the Europa League as well, getting eliminated by a Luxembourgian team.

photo by Ben Majerus/Luxemburger Wort: Juan Felipe chases Daniel Sinani

After the shocking 2:1 defeat at home in the first leg coach Kjatip Osmani admitted his obvious mistakes and made couple of changes in the starting line-up by bringing back the standard players. First of all, he brought back Kostadin Zahov between the posts. His experiment with young goalee Bekim Redjepi ended up in a total failure as he was guilty for both goals. Also, back on field was Besart Ibraimi, the former top goalscorer who is still searching for his form after the long injury.

With Dudelange having a 2:1 lead from Skopje, Shkendija had to press and attack right from the start. In the 10th minute Besart missed a great opportunity after his shot from inside the box hit the top of the post.

The hosts could have taken the lead in the 19th minute when Stolz got a through ball and went one on one with Zahov, but the Macedonian keeper came out victorious.

Almost an own goal from Dudelange in the ten minutes before the break. A long ball lead to a misunderstanding between defender Delgado and keeper Kips, Delago headed toward his own net but the keeper managed to barely recover and clear the ball out for a corner kick.

In the 42nd minute Radeski played a perfect pass to Agim who had a great look from left, had time to think what to do and at the end missed the who target.

Shkendija did outplayed Dudelange in the opening half, created several chances but their finishing was as bad as it can get.

Just three minutes after the break and two quick chances on either side. After Dudelange hit the crossbar on the other end, Shkendija goes the other way and created a quality chance, but Radeski had his shot easily saved.

53rd minute and another miss by Besart. He controlled a long ball nicely, made a nice move to create space but his powerful shot was right at the keeper who made the stop out for a corner kick.

Another huge miss came from Agim Ibraimi in the 61st minute. He got a ball inside the box and instead of firing on first touch he decided to round the keeper. After waiting too long to shoot he eventually fired and hit a Dudelange player. The Shkendija players wanted a hand ball penalty, but the referee said no.

Five minutes later and Shkendija was lucky as Pokar hit the post from a free kick.

As it always seems to happen, a team that misses chance after chance usually gets punished on the other end. Twelve minutes from time Shkendija got punished by Ricardo Delgado who headed home after a corner kick.

In just five minutes Visar Musliu collected two yellow cards leaving Shkendija with a man down in the closing minutes. The first card was for a foul and the second for commenting a referee’s decision. It was probably his farewell match as rumors are saying that he has already agreed to terms with Hungarian side Fehérvár.

In the second injury minute Agim Ibraimi leveled on 1:1 from a direct free kick. But it was too late and Shkendija got eliminated as they needed a second goal for extra time.

Both goals:

Four minutes into the injury time and substitute Valmir Nafiu stopped a counter attack by making a foul from behind on Natami. He was shown a direct red card. Agim Ibraimi was unsatisfied by that decisions and first got a yellow card for commenting but that only pissed him off to get sent-off for heading the referee. After the final whistle other players had to handle Zeni Husmani who wanted to clear things with the Welsh referee.

The red card incidents:

Josy Barthel stadium in Luxembourg Luxembourg
Luxembourg Dudelange – Macedonia Shkendija 1:1 (0:0); 3:2 agg.
Goals: 78′ Ricardo Delgado – 90’+2 Agim Ibraimi
Dudelange: 30. Kips; 15. Delgado, 5. Schnell (C), 34. Bouchouari; 24. Kirch, 8. Pokar (90′ 20. Garos), 28. Morren, 10. Stolz; 27. Bettaieb (62′ 18. Pomponi), 9. Sinani, 22. Bernier (83′ 13. Natami).
Shkendija: 1. Zahov; 3. Mici, 4. Bejtulai, 6. Musliu, 16. Murati (82′ 29. Cheshmedjiev); 90. Husmani, 5. Alimi (C); 7. B. Ibraimi (77′ 28. Imeri), 70. Juan Felipe (66′ 23. Nafiu), 10. A. Ibraimi; 14. Radeski.
Yellow cards: Bettaieb, Bouchouari (D), Alimi, Bejtulai, Mici, Musliu, Musliu, Ibraimi, Husmani (Sh)
Red cards: 85′ Visar Musliu, 90’+4 Valmir Nafiu, 90’+5 Agim Ibraimi (Sh)
Referee: Iwan Arwel Griffith Wales
Assistants: Daniel Beckett & Lewiss Edwards Wales
Fourth official: Robert Ian Jenkins Wales

The European adventure of Shkendija got quickly over. Two humiliating eliminations by teams from Estonia and Luxembourg. The Shkendija players never actually managed to score a goal from active play in these four matches. Three times they scored from the spot and today from a free kick. Very disappointing.

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  1. Pingback: Macedonian Football | #StayHome short interview with Dino Zahov

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