Vardar was close to make a shocking come back in Finland, but at the end got knocked out of the Champions League. In the Conference League, Sileks got eliminated after penalty shoot-out, while Shkëndija advanced.

photo by Matejcho Photography: Sileks players during the penalties

After the disappointing first leg in Skopje, Vardar managed to tie the overall score with 2:0 win after 90 minutes in Kuopio against Finish champions KuPS. In the 59th minute Boban Nikolov sent a good cross in the box where Azer Omeragić scored with his shoulder. Vardar the much needed second goal in the injury time. Gerson Rodrigues was brought down in the box by Brahima Magassa and Vardar got a penalty kick that was converted by Goran Zakarić.

The match went into extra where more goals followed. First, in the 100th minute, Bob Armah brought KuPS in game after going out alone in front of Davor Taleski, taking advantage of Ian Puleio’s poor positioning, and easily defeated him. Just two minutes later, Zakarić crossed from the right, and Puleio jumped to score on a header over the home goalkeeper Johannes Kreidl. But that wasn’t the end of the Argentine’s show. In the 105th minute he played with his hand in the box and the Finns were awarded a penalty. Piotr Pażyszek scored to make it 2:3. Vardar needed one more goal to send the match in penalty shoot-outs, but failed.

Highlights:

With this early elimination in the very first qualifying round of the Champions League, Vardar moves to the Conference League where in the second qualifying round will play against Riga from Latvia, who was also eliminated from the Champions League.

After the bit 5:0 win away in Gibraltar, everyone expected another easy high scoring win for Shkëndija against Europa, this time in Skopje. However, the visitors showed a much better performance and were close to get out with a draw. It was Vane Krstevski’s solo run to settle the winner with a late 85th minute goal.

Highlights:

Shkëndija in the second qualifying round of the Conference League will play against Slovenian side Bravo.

Sileks went in the return leg in Skopje with a 1:0 lead against Dinamo Minsk, but failed to use this advantage. The Belarussians scored an early goal to tie the overall score. The 15th minutes was underway when Yaugen Malashevich sent a cross in the box that ended in the net after Ivan Šubert went for the ball but did not intervene and keeper Ljupche Djekov got surprised.

Since no more goals were scored even after the extra time, penalties had to be taken. All five players in the sides scored and the sixth series decided the winner. It was Angelche Timovski who struck the crossbar and Dinamo celebrated a 6:5 penalty win.

Highlights:

Sileks hasn’t passed a round since it’s debut appearance in the 1995/96 season. Since then they have been eliminated from a competition on 12 occasions!