After a lackluster first half, Macedonia played with more urgency after the break and collected a 1:0 victory thanks to a goal by Goran Pandev.

The first half was rather dull as neither team could create many chances.  Macedonia had more of the possession but seemed to be lacking ideas up front.  The attacking trident of Trichkovski, Ibraimi and Pandev was pretty quiet.  Lithuania, on the other hand, had one quality chance in the 35th minute from a free kick but Martin Bogatinov made a good save and it went for a corner.  After a disappointing showing in the opening 45 minutes, the crowd booed the team as the referee blew his whistle for halftime.

In the second half, interim manager Goce Sedloski made two changes with Ferhan Hasani coming on for Ivan Trichkovski and Tome Pachovski replacing Bogatinov in goal.  The half started much like the first, with Macedonia looking rather unconvincing, but then the players started to show some urgency and were rewarded with a goal in the 54th minute.  Agim Ibraimi made a simple pass to the substitute Hasani who then showed good vision with a nice through ball to Pandev whose shot got past the Lithuanian keeper for what proved to be the only goal of the match.  In the 73rd minute, Macedonia had a great chance to extend the lead with Pandev setting up Hasani this time, but Ferhan’s shot from inside the area went over the goal.  Pandev came close to adding his second goal in the 78th minute when Vanche Shikov’s long sliding clearance somehow reached Goran on the other end but his shot was blocked by an opposing defender before resulting in a corner. From the subsequent corner taken by Pandev, Shikov went up high to win a header but his effort was saved comfortably.  Lithuania was not threatening for most of the second half but did come close to scoring an equalizer in the 83rd minute when a shot from distance by Šemberas went just wide of the left goal post.

Click here to view the match report.