Ilija Nestorovski scored two goals while Stefan Ristovski added another as Macedonia U21 celebrated a 3:1 victory over their counterparts from Cyprus.

The match was played at the Boris Trajkovski stadium in Skopje.  Boban Babunski was on the sidelines as the manager but he will have a busy day as he will also be present for the senior national team later in the day since Babunski is the top assistant to John Toshack.  Both Macedonian managers decided to allow Stefan Ristovski to play for the U21 team as he was not going to make the bench for the Andorra game.  Keep in mind that the U21 team was already without the services of Ferhan Hasani, Aleksandar Trajkovski, and Samir Fazli since they are all expected to take part in the Andorra game.

Macedonian newspaper Sport Efe announced yesterday that the game would be shown on its website but the 1st half was not televised.  We were only able to watch the 2nd half.  During the commentary, the announcer mentioned that Macedonia controlled the 1st half and had a deserving 2:0 lead going into the break thanks to goals by Ilija Nestorovski in the 10th minute and Stefan Ristovski in the 21st minute.  In particular, the announced called the goal by Ristovski world class.  Hopefully, there will be video of the goals in the 1st half so we can view those two goals.

The 2nd half was pretty even as both sides created chances and each side scored one goal.  The Cyprus U21 national team scored their lone goal in the 71st minute thanks to a mistake by two of the Macedonian defenders.  Kire Ristevski and Jasmin Mecinović lost the ball in a dangerous position on the left side which led to the Cyprus goal.  One of the Cypriot players was through on goal and the first shot was initially saved by the Macedonian keeper Filip Gacevski but another Cypriot player scored an easy goal, from close range, on the rebound into an empty goal.  A minute after the goal, Marjan Altiparmakovski had a good chance but his effort from inside the area went just wide of the goal.  The next chance fell several minutes later but Gacevski parried a shot by a Cyprus player and it went for a corner.  In the 83rd minute, Nestorovski attempted a right footed shot from outside of the box but it went wide of the goal.  Substitute Milovan Petrović should have done better in the 86th minute after a good cross from Altiparmakovski but his shot lacked power and was saved by the Cypriot keeper.  Several minutes later, Goran Siljanovski had a huge miss from close range following a corner kick.  The ball eventually found Siljanovski in the box who skied the ball well over the goal from a good position inside the area.  Finally, in stoppage time of the 90th minute, Nestorovski made it 3:1 for Macedonia after a huge blunder by the Cypriot keeper.  A cross was played from the left which was misplayed terribly by the opposing keeper before Nestorovski reached the ball and scored one of the easiest goals into an empty goal.  It was his second goal of the game.

After the game, a fight nearly broke out as the Cypriot players were not happy with the referee.  Also, there was shoving between several Cypriot and Macedonian players.  In particular, #9 of Cyprus had to be held back by several players as he attempted to enter the Macedonian tunnel.  Police were called onto the field to protect the referee who was surrounded by angry Cypriot players.  After several tense minutes, the police got things under control and both teams went their separate ways.  Throughout the 2nd half, the match did not have many friendly moments as the Cypriot players were feisty and protested every call that went against them.  It was not a good ending to a friendly match.

Starting lineup for Macedonia: Gacevski, Brdarovski, Bogdanović (c), Mecinović, Ristevski, Spirovski, Urdinov, Glisić, Ristovski, Nestorovski, Altiparmakovski.

Also played: Siljanovski, Husmani, Abdulla, Petrović, Drobarov, Mitrevski.