Exactly 30 years ago today, the Macedonian national team recorded the biggest victory in its history.
photo by FFM: team photo before the match
At exactly 13:30 CET, the Macedonian players ran onto the Eschen-Mauren stadium in the town of Eschen, Liechtenstein, in front of 2,700 spectators, mostly Macedonian fans from surrounding countries.
It was a qualifying match for the 1998 World Cup in France, Macedonia’s fourth. Liechtenstein was no unknown opponent, as Macedonia had beaten them 3:0 in the first round in Skopje in April. But after that result, no one could have predicted what would happen that November afternoon under the Alps.
The Macedonians opened the scoring in the 8th minute through Dejvi Glavevski, and added five more goals before the break. The fact that the score at halftime was double the 3:0 in Skopje hinted that something big would happen that day.
After the break, the goal scoring continued and counted to 11, while the home players, otherwise all amateurs, managed to score an honorary goal for a final 1:11. The result resonated around the world and at that moment put Macedonia in the top 5 highest victories of all time.
Glavevski celebrated a hat-trick, Mitko Stojkovski, Toni Micevski and Sasha Ciric (one from penalty) each scored a brace, and Gjorgji Hristov and Vancho Micevski scored one each.
For Macedonia played: 1. Dančo Celeski; 2. Goce Sedloski, 4. Ljupčo Markovski, 5. Igor Saša Nikolovski, 3. Mitko Stojkovski (64′ 14. Sašo Miloševski), 6. Srgjan Zaharievski, 7. Vlatko Gošev, 8. Toni Micevski (C) (77′ 18. Toni Naumoski), 9. Gjorgji Hristov, 10. Saša Ćirić, 11. Dejvi Glavevski (69′ 17. Vančo Micevski).
Remained on the bench: 12. Antonio Filevski; 13. Risto Milosavov, 15. Husein Beganović and 16. Artim Šakiri.
Coach: Gjokica Hadžievski.
Highlights:
Liechtenstein was playing with a handicap at the time because they were missing their best player and only professional, Mario Frick from Swiss club Basel. He later made a name for himself in Serie A, playing for the likes of Verona and Siena.
Also, these 12 goals in total make this match the most efficient one Macedonia has ever played in. The closest to this efficiency was the 4:4 friendly draw against Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2002 and the 7:1 defeat to Wales in 2025 – both of which saw 8 goals scored.
Macedonia has never come close to such a high victory again. The most they have managed to win is 5:0 on four occasions (against Malta in 2002, Liechtenstein in 2021 and 2025 and Armenia in 2021). Therefore, they were a little short of reaching this 11:1, but in their own net when they lost 7:0 to England and 7:1 to Wales.
Before that November under the Alps, Macedonia’s highest victory was 5:1 against Albania in a friendly in Tetovo.