Macedonia celebrated a 2:0 away to Malta thanks to the goals scored by Elmas and Manev.
photo by Igor Panevski/FFM: Manev celebrates his debut goal
Coach Blagoja Milevski made three changes from the Italy match. Stole Dimitrievski had to withdraw due to the back injury, so it was known that Damjan Shishkovski would be between the posts. Stefan Ashkovski run so much against Italy, so against Malta on the right wing back position featured Bojan Dimoski. The last change was Isnik Alimi at the midfield place of Agon Elezi. The coach decided Darko Velkovski, Dorian Babunski and Dimitar Mitrovski to watch the match from the stands.
Macedonia for the first time in its history played with black kits.
Macedonia broke the dead lock just after 5 minutes. Alioski from the left passed to Bardhi, who found Elmas into the box, and the Napoli player fire with his right leg into to top far angle.
#Elmas goal vs. 🇲🇹Malta pic.twitter.com/5qNe2GJbkh
— UFO hunter 🇲🇰 (@FilippoMkd) September 12, 2023
The Macedonians controlled the game play, despite Malta not lacking possession. However, the hosts never managed to create a serious chance.
Four minutes from the break came the second goal. Bardhi took a corner kick from the left and found defender Manev in the box who headed home. It was his debut goal in the national team.
After the break Malta started playing mire offensively, but failed to make a threat. In the 76th minute Zajkov got injured and had to be taken off.
At the end Macedonia celebrated and won the much needed points.
Many Macedonians who work and live in Malta and Italy showed up on the stands and gave support to the lads.
Photo by Igor Panevski/FFM
Our next match is against Ukraine on 14 October. That game will be played in Poland.