Same as before Norway, at the press conference before Iceland, the Macedonian national team players and the coach are very confident about a win tomorrow. They want a revenge for the 1:0 defeat in Reykjavik, they are highly motivated and will do anything to get the crucial 3 points.
“With short time interval after the game against Norway we have to come back quickly, to work on our tactic, repeat some of the tactics that we have worked on at our preparations in Ohrid and analyze the opponent. Iceland isn’t Norway but isn’t Andorra as well. They have their own specifics, good and bad things. Yesterday we watched two DVDs, our game in Reykjavik and Iceland – Netherlands just to see their good and bad sides. We are not interested whit which players they will play, we are only interested in our play. About our play, I’m content of how we played against Norway, only a goal was missing. For this game we must move up a bit to the attack, especially the midfielders where there will be some changes. There will be a change in the attack where Pandev, Stojkov and Naumoski are. So there will be changes in all positions. It is clear that we have to make progression with the back wings if we want to open Iceland who plays a Catenaccio for the whole 90 minutes if they don’t concede a goal. They always play like that.” – were the thoughts of the national team coach Mirsad Jonuz.
Goran Pandev is very confident about tomorrow’s win: “It will be a hard game since Iceland isn’t a naive team, tactically they are very closed. It wont be an easy game, but we don’t have any choice but to fight for the 3 points, because they own to us since we have lost a game that we were about to win on Iceland. We have made many chances, but yet failed to score. We miss those 3 points from Iceland very much, but now we have to continue, there is a game waiting for us on Wednesday. We are all ready to give our best and I think that with a 3 more points we will go to Scotland and Norway in September.”
“I will repeat what Goran said. A very hard game is ahead of us, with an opponent that plays very defensively. We have nothing to lose, we have to attack from the beginning and surely we want revenge for that defeat at Iceland who I must admit, hurt us very much. We are highly motivated for a win tomorrow.” – said Vlade Lazarevski who will play tomorrow from the beginning after he was left on the bench against Norway.
Asked about the first game that was played on Iceland, Jonuz said: “In the first half on that game surprisingly Iceland came to our half and in some moment even played a pressing. Normally, after they scored they came back to their half and the situation changed. Now we will try to open that Catenaccio and with the changes that we will make, Lazarevski will get a chance to play on the right and with Popov on the left, we will succeed. On the other hand, you have seen that we played with two defensive midfielders against Norway, but now we will play with two offensive midfielders and Naumoski, Pandev and Stojkov will also change their positions. Naumoski will be striker and depending on the situation, left or right, Stojkov and Pandev will be changing their positions. With this strategy, with this attacking play and a pressing from the first minute I hope that we will open the score in the first 20 minutes and everything will be much easier in the rest of the game.”
Since Iceland will play without a few standard players, Jonuz was asked to give an opinion about that: “Who are not interested in who will and who wont play, we only care about our play. They are tactically well prepared, they play with 4 in the back line and many times with even 5 players, with 4 deep before them, so our players will have to make a player plus in this zone, bigger transformation and when we will have the ball close to their goal to take it left or right and with a finish from the wings to score. This is the only solution for their Catenaccio.”
The game will be played tomorrow at 17.45 CET on the National Arena Filip II od Macedon in Skopje.