Macedonia failed to take the much needed 3 points in the decisive 2024 EURO qualifier against Ukraine. The Lynx did not even take a point, although they played a good game with many chances, but no goals were scored.

photo by FFM: moment into the Macedonian box

 

Coach Blagoja Milevski fielded 10 of the 11 players that started against Italy last month, missing only the injured Gjoko Zajkov. Stole Dimitrievski was between the posts, in the defense the trio Jovan Manev, Visar Musliu and Nikola Serafimov, Ezgjan Alioski as left wing back with Stefan Ashkovski as right wing back. In the midfield captain Enis Bardhi, Jani Atanasov and Agon Elezi, while up front Elif Elmas and Bojan Miovski.

Around 40 minutes before kick-off the heavy rain eventually stopped and even sun appeared over Prague, the capital city of Czechia. Due to the ongoing war in Ukraine with Russia, the Ukrainians have to play the home matches in other countries. So far the played in Poland and Slovakia with this being their first match in Czechia. However, due to the racist chant against England, UEFA penalized Ukraine to play their next home game with a reduced capacity. That is why the epet Arena was not full today. However, many Macedonian fans showed up to give support.

Ukraine took the possession from the start. Dovbyk had the first chance in the 12th minute, but Dimitrievski saved. Four minutes later Mudryk made his way down the left side, but Dimitrievski made an excellent save. Macedonia had its first chance in the 22nd minute when, after a counter attack, Miovski was faster than the home defense, but from a difficult angle sent a low shot that was an easy save for keeper Trubin.

After exactly half an hour of play, Ukraine took the lead from a chance that did not look promising at all. In fact, the Ukrainians lost the ball, but then Atanasov gave it back to them by reacting badly just in front of the box, Sudakov took it and sent a shot that did not promise, but on its way the ball hit Serafimov, changed direction and ended up in the net on the opposite side from Dimitrievski.

The Macedonians woke up and started a more offensive play, creating several good chances. In the 36th minute Miovski again escaped the Ukrainian defense, tried to put the ball between Trubin’s legs, but the Ukrainian goalkeeper saw his intention and denied an equalizer. In the very next minute Ashkovski and Miovski played a double pass that resulted with Ashkovski coming in front of the goal from the right, but again Trubin saved. In the 44th minute, Elmas also had a shot outside the box, but went wide.

Milevski made two changes during the break with Darko Churlinov and Bojan Dimoski stepping in instead of Jovan Manev and Stefan Ashkovski. That changed our formation to 3-4-3.

The rain came back in the second half and lasted throughout the match. Macedonia started offensively from the beginning, just were they stopped before the break. In the 53rd minute Churlinov penetrated well into the home box, fired a great shot, everyone saw the ball in the net, but Trubin somehow still managed to deflect it into a corner. After the corner, Musliu tried a bicycle kick, but the ball went well above the goal.

The Ukrainians started playing on counter attack because Macedonia had the ball far more. One counter attack in the 59th minute led by Dovbyk resulted in Mudryk having a great chance one on one, but Dimitrievski made a great save. A corner kick was awarded and Zinchenko sent the ball in the visiting box where Matviyenko headed into the crossbar.

As the minutes were passing by, the Macedonian played seemed to get tired – they were firing weak shots and were often making mistakes in passing, even though they still held the ball more than the opponents. Ukraine was still trying on the counter attacks, and one such attack in the 81st minute ended with Sudakov firing a great shot from 20 meters, Dimitrievski saved the ball enough to go into the crossbar, again.

Later, deep in stoppage time a counter attack turned into a goal. Karavayev went pass Dimoski on the left side, noticed that Dimitrievski was out of place and shot from a distance into the undefended net.

Highlights:

With this defeat Macedonia now has only mathematical chances as had only 7 points and two matches left, both in November, but those two are against European holders Italy and group leaders England. Italy will play Malta toning and most probably will get the points.

Macedonia is idle in the next round, so on Tuesday will host Armenia in a friendly match in Strumica at 15.00 CET.

Match report  |  Standings