Macedonia U21 salvaged a late draw against Italy U20 after Yani Urdinov converted a penalty in the third minute of stoppage time to tie the game at 2:2.

The match was played on a bad pitch in Kumanovo.  Macedonia U21 opened as the brighter side in the opening 20 minutes and took the deserving lead in the 16th minute when striker Samir Fazli found the back of the net after an assist by Stefan Spirovski.  Macedonia had more of the possession but Italy soon tied the game at 1:1 in the 27th minute through Gianluca De Luca.  Just before halftime, each team had a chance from a free kick, but Ilija Nestorovski’s effort was blocked while Italy’s free kick from a dangerous position was caught by the Macedonian keeper Filip Gacevski.

At the start of the 2nd half, manager Boban Babunski made numerous substitutions which negatively affected the play of the Macedonian side as Italy took control of the game.  Italy capitalized on the dominance after the break by scoring a goal in the 51st minute to take the 1:2 lead on the road.  Striker Giacomo Beretta beat keeper Stole Dimitrievski from close range after a mistake by defender Jasmin Mecinovik.  The same player had another big opportunity several minutes later but his effort from a good position went over the goal.  Another good chance was wasted by Italy in the 77th minute when Nadir Minotti’s shot from close range also went just over the goal.  Macedonia did not threaten for the majority of the 2nd half but did manage to tie the game at 2:2 in the third minute of stoppage time when Yani Urdinov converted a penalty.  The penalty came after Stefan Ristovski was brought down inside the area by the Italy keeper and the referee immediately pointed to the spot and gave the keeper a yellow card.  Urdinov calmly converted the spot kick to set the final 2:2 scoreline.

All 20 players called up by Macedonia U21 were given a chance to play in this friendly against Italy U20.  The new players on the squad, Miroslav Jovanovski and Darko Stojanov, made late substitute appearances to make their debuts for the U21 national team.

Lineup for Macedonia U21: Gacevski (46′ Dimitrievski); Brdarovski (46′ Siljanovski), Bogdanovik (46′ Mitrevski), Ristevski (46′ Mecinovik), Abdula; Spirovski (75′ Jovanovski), Tahiri (46′ Urdinov), Glisik (46′ Jakimovski), Ristovski; Nestorovski (85′ Stojanov), Fazli (46′ Altiparmakovski).