After playing a1:1 draw away to Israel, Macedonia collected the planed three points against Latvia in the second road game in a row.
photo by FFM: Goran Pandev celebrates his goal with Elif Elmas
On Thursday Macedonia managed to stay unbeaten in Israel. That was a draw which doesn’t suited either national team in their aim to finish second in the group. Israel took the lead in the 55th minute with the goal scored by Zahavi and Macedonia equalized through Ademi in the 64th minute of the game.
Click here to view the match report against Israel.
Today Macedonia visited Latvia in a must win game. Coach Igor Angelovski fielded a more offensive team as he this time had two instead of three central backs in the starting line-up. The Lions controlled the game from the first minute and early in the 14th minute captain Goran Pandev opened the score when he finished with a left-footed shot after Elmas’ pass from the left hand side. Just three minutes later Bardhi doubled the score when he netted with a precise shot from outside the box after a pass by Alioski was deflected.
After the second goal Macedonia had several opportunities to net a third goal, but the players were to lax. Latvia on the other side lacked quality to trouble our defense. Their biggest chance came late in the 83rd minute after a mistake in our midfield. Furthermore the hosts had some shots from the distance, but most of them were wide or easy prey for goalie Dimitrievski. In the end Macedonia achieved the expected win away to Latvia.
Click here to view the match report against Latvia.
With four rounds to go Macedonia has eight points and sits actually on the fourth position just three points behind second placed Slovenia. Nevertheless the fight for the second place won’t be easy as we have two hard games away to Poland and Austria, so probably to have a chance we have to win the two home games against Slovenia and Israel and additionally have to collect some points from the tough away encounters. Our upcoming game is at home on the 10th October against Slovenia.