The coach of the Macedonian under-21 national team, Dragi Kanatlarovski, gave his comments about this qualification cycle and the matches against the national teams of the Netherlands and Gibraltar.

photo by FFM

“It is certain that we could have done much better and more in these qualifications than the previous performance. In certain matches, luck was simply not our ally, but there is no room for excuses, we have two new qualifying matches in front of us in which we have to show ourselves in a good light.”

“We had a great start to this qualification cycle, we achieved a difficult victory over a strong opponent, the Swedish national team, on the away field. In the second round, we played the best match in these qualifications against the favorite in the group, the Netherlands, a match in which we missed many chances, and in the end the opponent took advantage of that and punished us for the many misses.”

“This selection does not have a wide pool of players, and this was mostly reflected in the matches against Moldova and Georgia, where we played below our expectations and recorded two defeats. At certain moments, we failed to show more patience, and we lacked concentration and calmness in the end of the attacks.”

“In the next period, two new matches await us, against the Netherlands and Gibraltar. The first against the favorite in the group, away from home, is the most difficult match that awaits us in these qualifications. There is no surrender, we are ready to fight and play another good and quality match, like the first one in Skopje within the third round of the qualification cycle. As for Gibraltar, in that match the situation is completely different. We are favorites and we are expected to win.”

“In the upcoming matches, the opportunity will be given to the new young players, who will have the chance to perform for this team in the next qualification cycle that awaits us.”