After a lackluster 1st half, Macedonia played with more urgency in the 2nd half and managed to break the deadlock thanks to a goal from Mirko Ivanovski in the 59th minute.

Macedonia threatened early in the 2nd minute when Mirko Ivanovski found himself in a good position but his shot from just inside the area was saved by the Andorra keeper.  The next ten minutes consisted of Macedonia controlling possession but the team lacked ideas and was not creating any opportunities.  In the 15th minute, Vance Sikov won the ball, passed it to Trichkovski who made a nice run and the ball eventually found Ferhan Hasani but he rushed his shot anticipating contact and sent his effort wide of the goal.  Trichkovski was then fouled from behind in the 16th minute and immediately got up in the face of the Andorra defender, not appreciating the dangerous foul.  The referee decided to give the defender a yellow card for the bad foul.

The next opportunity for Macedonia came in the 23rd minute but Goran Popov’s direct free kick was parried away by the visiting keeper.  Two minutes later, Trichkovski found Hasani inside the area who then played a dangerous cross but nobody could quite reach the ball in front of the Andorra goal.  Daniel Mojsov should have scored in the 30th minute when he received a cross from the right but his header was mishit and it went way wide of the goal.  It seemed Mojsov wasn’t expecting the ball to reach him and badly missed on the header.  Muarem came close in the 34th minute when he attempted a shot from distance but the keeper was in good position and gathered the shot by Muarem.  The final chance for Macedonia during the 1st half came in the 45th minute when Trichkovski’s free kick from a good position struck the wall before redirecting for a corner.  From the resulting corner, Hasani got his head on the ball but the opposing keeper made the save.  The Macedonian national team was booed by the fans as they made their way to the dressing room for their inability to find the back of the net and playing with a lack of urgency.

The ineffective Agim Ibraimi was substituted at the start of the 2nd half by Aleksandar Trajkovski.  Macedonia was a lot more aggressive at the start of the half as Toshack must have called out the team during halftime for their bad performance in the 1st half.  The first big opportunity fell for Hasani in the 47th minute when he created some space in the box before turning but his shot lacked power and was straight at the Andorra keeper.  Minutes later, it was Hasani once again testing the keeper but his powerful shot from a difficult position was punched away by the visiting keeper.  Finally, in the 59th minute, Macedonia took the lead following a corner kick.  Trajkovski took the corner, Sikov got up high to win the header, the ball then hit Mojsov in the lower body, before falling perfectly for Mirko Ivanovski who turned and slotted the ball to the back of the net from close range.

Macedonia should have doubled the lead in the 67th minute but Trichkovski was too unselfish and tried a low cross instead of attempting a shot himself.  He dribbled past his marker but his cross was a tad long for the sliding Mirko Ivanovski.  In the 80th minute, Ivanovski squandered a big opportunity by being too selfish this time.  He made a nice run towards goal from the right but the angle was narrow.  Instead of making a simple low cross to the charging Fazli who would have scored an easy goal, Ivanovski attempted a shot which went wide of the goal.  Macedonia wanted a penalty in the 82nd minute when Trichkovski went down but the referee waved play on, even though it seemed that Trichkovski was fouled by his marker.  Aleksandar Trajkovski had the last chance for Macedonia in the 90th minute but his effort went wide of the goal.  In the third minute of stoppage time, an Andorra player took a shot from distance but Macedonian keeper Martin Bogatinov comfortably caught the ball, thus preventing any rebound opportunities.

Highlights of the game (goal at 0:48):

Overall, the team played with a lack of urgency in the 1st half.  Macedonia created several chances but they just went through the motion and seemed disinterested at times.  However, Macedonia came out very aggressive at the start of the 2nd half and the speed of the game improved drastically.  Players were hustling, running quickly to take throw ins, and showing more urgency.  After the goal, the players seemed satisfied with the result and that disappointed the fans who wanted to see more goals.  The players were not as fast to get up when Andorra committed a foul and they took their time taking throw ins or free kicks.  After the two matchups against Andorra during EURO 2012 qualifying, Macedonia outscored Andorra 3:0 with all three goals coming following corner kicks.  In the first game, Sikov and Naumoski scored on headers from corner kicks while Mirko Ivanovski scored from close range in today’s game following a corner kick from the right.

National arena Philip II of Macedon in Skopje, Macedonia
Referee: Mark Steven Whitby (Wales)
Scorers: Ivanovski 59′
Yellow cards: Muarem 17′, Ivanovski 24′, Huseini 90′ (M); Rubio 17′, Sonejee 45′, Gutierrez 45′, Garcia 66′, Vales 89 (A).
Red cards: None
Macedonia: Bogatinov; Georgievski, Sikov, Mojsov, Popov; Sumulikoski (c), Muarem (77′ Huseini); Trichkovski, Hasani (68′ Fazli), Ibraimi (46′ Trajkovski); Ivanovski.
Andorra: Gómes, Martinez, Bernaus, Sonejee (c), S. Garcia, Vieira (83′ M. Garcia), Silva (74′ Gómez), Moreno, Vales, Ayala, Rubio (26′ Gutierrez).

To view the match report, click here.