After the frustrating loss at Romania to open 2022 World Cup qualifying, Macedonia has a quick turnaround with a home fixture versus Liechtenstein on Sunday.

photo by FFM

Liechtenstein is a familiar opponent for our national team. We have played them four times in the past four years, two games coming in 2017 and two more games coming in 2018. All four encounters have resulted in a Macedonia win. Another win is expected on Sunday.

Make no mistake, however, Sunday will be a test. Liechtenstein is a very defensive team, and despite not having much quality, it is never easy to face an opponent that basically defends with all 11 players in their own half. There is not much space to work with.

Another concern is that this match has the classic making of a letdown, with Liechtenstein sandwiched between road trips to Romania and Germany (who we play next Wednesday). It is easy to get motivated to face Romania and especially Germany, but it is not easy to get up for an opponent like Liechtenstein. Simply put, there can’t be any complacency in what is a must win game. Anything but a win on Sunday would mean that our aim of finishing second in the group is over. You just have to get 6 points from the two fixtures with Liechtenstein.

Any time you play an opponent that parks the bus (and believe me Liechtenstein takes that to another level), the first goal is always the toughest. If you can get a goal or two in the first 30 minutes, then the pressure lessens and you can have a glorified training session the rest of the way. However, if the score is still goalless going into the 2nd half, then the pressure intensifies and the likelihood of a non-win becomes a shocking possibility.

Three games in seven days also means that the starting lineup must get rotated some on Sunday. I would expect Pandev at age 37 to be rested in order to be fully ready for Germany. You hope to not even need him off the bench against Liechtenstein. It would be risky to start Pandev all three games in the span of a week at his age. Nestorovski will likely get benched for poor form, and another one or two usual starters should also drop to the bench.

There is no need to play with 3 CB’s against Liechtenstein. Instead, I would play a very offensive 4-1-4-1 formation. I would have loved to rest Ademi, Bardhi, Ristovski and Alioski in this match, but you just can’t afford to after the loss to Romania. They must be in there.

Bardhi, especially, is very important for this type of game because set pieces will present decent opportunities to score. Not only direct free kicks, but also service into the box from free kicks or corner kicks. Bardhi is very good in both areas.

The starters we would go with on Sunday:

Dimitrievski

Ristovski—-Velkovski———Musliu——-Alioski

Spirovski

Trajkovski——Bardhi——Ademi——-Elmas

Stojanovski

The absence of Velkovski against Romania was felt. Bejtulai and Ristevski were shaky. It is not clear whether Velkovski will be healthy by Sunday. If he is, you start him. If not, then I would choose Bejtulai over Ristevski to partner Musliu. In re-watching the Romania match, I thought Bejtulai was less worse than Ristevski if that makes sense.

I also considered playing Alioski as a right winger, but that meant that Kire Ristevski or Stefan Askovski would need to start at LB. And, I did not want to do that. So, I would go with the above starting 11. The hope is to put the match away by halftime or the 60th minute at the latest (means being up by at least 2 goals), so then you can substitute Ademi, Bardhi, Alioski, Ristovski and Elmas. That way, they can have some energy left for Germany on Wednesday.

Liechtenstein should not be able to score a goal on Sunday. No excuses there. The only question, then, becomes will Liechtenstein succeed in making this a 0:0 draw? If they do, it would be a massive embarrassment for our national team. However, if our players approach this match with professionalism and seriousness, then the goal(s) will come. It may take time for the first goal, but eventually it will come if the players have the right mindset.

Since the players showed good character to never quit in the Romania encounter, I believe they will be focused on the task at hand and defeat Liechtenstein in this must win affair.

Our prediction: Macedonia – Liechtenstein 2:0

Past encounters between the two teams:

24.04.1996 3:0 win (match report) 1998 WCQ
09.11.1996 11:1 win (match report) 1998 WCQ
08.09.2002 1:1 draw (match report) 2004 EQ
07.06.2003 3:1 win (match report) 2004 EQ
12.11.2005 2:1 win (match report) friendly
24.03.2017 3:0 win (match report) 2018 WCQ
09.10.2017 4:0 win (match report) 2018 WCQ
13.10.2018 4:1 win (match report) 2018/19 NL
16.11.2018 2:0 win (match report) 2018/19 NL

Record: G9 W8 D1 L0 GD 33:5