Macedonia recorded another win by defeating the Faroe Island 1:0 today in Skopje and finished the group with 16 out of 18 points – our best performance in the Nations League ever.
photo by FFM: moment of the match
Milevski made some changes regarding the starting 11 that faced Latvia on Thursday. Injured Elif Elmas is not in the squad, while Bojan Dimoski was benched. Jani Atanasov got a chance as well as debutante defender Bojan Ilievski from Macedonian league current champions Struga. So, Stole Dimitrievski on goal, in the defense Ezgjan Alioski left back, Gjoko Zajkov and Nikola Serafimov as central defenders and Bojan Ilievski as right back, in the midfield captain Enis Bardhi, Jani Atanasov and Isnik Alimi with Darko Churlinov on the right, Aleksandar Trajkovski on the left and Bojan Miovski up front.
Macedonia took the initiative, but the Faroese had the first chance when in the 7th minute Hansson tried from 20 meters, but Dimitrievski had no problems. On the other side the first good attempt was in the 18th minute when Bardhi fired from outside the box, but right where Reynatrøð was placed.
The visitors showed that are in Skopje in search of points, not just to end the season. They pressed and attacked, but could not create a serious chance. In the 39th minute Alimi was well served in the box, went alone at Reynatrøð but was a bit pushed from behind just to miss the target and not enough for a penalty foul.
Four minutes after the break the visitors went into a counter attack, but Knudsen missed the target from a good position. Milevski made the first change when in the 54th minute Stefan Ashkovski, Milan Ristovski and Lirim Qamili substituted debutante Ilievski, Trajkovski and Churlinov.
The 59th minute was underway when Knudsen was brilliantly served in the box, he was alone in from of Dimitrievski but somehow managed to miss the ball.
Three minutes later the Macedonians punished the visitors for their miss. Atanasov from right sent a cross for Miovski, a visiting defender missed the ball, Miovski fired right away in the far side of the goal and broke the dead lock.
The goal:
Then the Faroese took possession and were trying to break the rock solid Macedonian defense, but simply could not do it.
Macedonia recorded the 5th win and with only one draw and no defeats ended on top of the group and won promotion into League B for the next edition of the Nations League.