Macedonian national team coach Blagoja Milevski shared his thoughts on the play-off draw results.

Macedonia yesterday got Italy in the semifinals of the UEFA play-off for reaching the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. If we eliminated Italy, in the final we will face the winner of the match between Portugal and Turkey.

Our coach Blagoja Milevski days before the draw speaking to a local TV channel said the he never had luck in the draws while being U21 national team coach and that probably history will repeat it self and he will get Italy or Portugal. He was right – he got both.

This is what he said about the draw results:

“Italy are the current European champions. We have great respect for our opponent and for their head coach. Many times I have talked how I appreciate him as a coach. I think that he was the key figure for winning the EURO. Under his guidance we saw a new and modern Italy that goes far beyond the stereotypes of the defense. They play different football, which complicates things for all of their opponents, and now for us – of course. However, we have to adapt to the challenges. Macedonia has its own qualities, we are not in the play-offs accidentally, so we will try to match them in this game.”

“Macedonia proved that no matter if we play home or away, we can match any opponent. Of course that we will miss the support of our fans, but we can not change these circumstances.”

“In today’s football there are outsiders only on paper. Everything that goes on on the field is a different story. According to the rankings, Italy are the favorites, but on the field we will also have to decide about the outcome. In these qualifiers we have proved that we have quality, so as all play-off participants we will give our best to confirm that.”