Turnovo bowed out of the Europa League after a 1:1 draw in the return leg which saw Hajduk Split reach the third qualifying round of the competition.

Turnovo is a limited club in terms of resources, but it will surely rue a missed opportunity as Hajduk Split was less than impressive over the two games and seems far removed from its glory days.  Over the two encounters, Hajduk did have more of the possession and more shots but they were less than convincing in dispatching of Turnovo.

In today’s game, in what was a rather uneventful first half, Turnovo’s lone opportunity in the opening 45 minutes came in the 16th minute when Dejan Blazhevski’s shot from a good position lacked power and was comfortably saved by the Hajduk keeper.  Meanwhile, on the other end, Hajduk also lacked ideas up front and only came close to scoring during a two minute stretch in the 39th and 40th minute.  Turnovo keeper Stojan Dimovski saved a shot in the 39th minute that went out for a corner kick.  From that resulting corner, Hajduk nearly scored from close range but Dimovski made a good block to keep the score at 0:0 heading into halftime.

The start of the second half was more of the same as both teams exchanged possession but could not do much with said possession.  Turnovo’s chances early in the 2nd half came on long range free kicks by Zoran Baldovaliev and Dejan Blazhevski which were both easily saved by the Hajduk keeper.  In the 54th minute, Hajduk had a free kick that nearly resulted in a goal after the Turnovo wall was caught napping.  With the wall anticipating a shot on goal, Hajduk instead made a pass on that free kick to an unmarked player in the box, but Dimovski made a good save to deny a Hajduk player.

Hajduk did open its account in the 60th minute when Mijo Caktaš, who was having a terrible game prior to the goal, dribbled past several Turnovo players before firing a shot past Dimovski.

In the 68th minute, Turnovo brought on attacker Sashko Pandev who made the home side’s offense much more dangerous.  As a matter of fact, not even two minutes had passed since Sashko entered the game and he got on the scoresheet after a ball was misplayed by defender Antonio Milić.  Baldovaliev sent a long ball towards Pandev whose marker Milić mishit a header which then reached Sashko who slotted a shot to the back of the net to make it 1:1.  Turnovo started playing much better at this stage of the game, and then Blazhevski had two quick chances that were squandered both times.  In the 75th minute, Pandev played a good ball to Blazhevski inside the area that put him through on goal, but Dejan’s effort was saved before going out for a corner.  A minute later, Baldovaliev found Blazhevski who reacted slowly and had his shot go out for a goal kick.  That was the final good chance for Turnovo who was eliminated from the Europa League by losing 2:3 on aggregate.  That means all four clubs that represented Macedonia in the Champions League and Europa League qualifications this season have now been eliminated.