Israel destroyed our every hopes for advancing into the Elite round of qualifications by celebrating a come from behind win over the young Macedonians.

photo by Filip Zdraveski: moment of the first half

Israel had more chances in the opening 45 minutes including three when their players were one on one with the Macedonian keeper, but Alchevski on each occasion came out victorious.

But it was the young Lynx who took the lead when in the 33rd minute Arifi gave a ball to Fetai who made few moves and fired a precise shit from the edge of the area. The ball went pass the bar giving Musayof no chance.

After the break Israel started furiously. First Harush scored a great goal from around 20 meters in the 52nd minute to level the score. Just three minutes later Alchevski made a clumsy save by dropping the ball and then fouling Harush in the box. Gabay stepped in and scored from the spot turning around the result.

The penalty goal:

Macedonia did try to score an equalizer, but failed. Instead, Israel added two more goals to cement the points. It was substitute Tal Torgeman who scored a brace in just two minutes span. With this defeat Macedonia officially has no chances for advancing into the Elite round.

Petar Miloshevski stadium in Skopje
 Israel – Macedonia 4:1 (0:1)
Goals: 52′ Shalev Harush, 55′ (pen) Liroy Gabay, 77′, 79′ Tal Torgeman – 33′ Behar Fetai
Israel: 18. Ben David Musayof; 4. Roey Elimelech, 6. Itai Ben Hamo (C), 13. Michael Molo Geta Beyene, 14. Shahar Rosen; 15. Aviho Gleekman Torgeman (46′ 19. Nir Berkovitz), 12. Aviel Yosef Zargavy (82′ 16. Tomer Barzilai), 8. Shalev Harush (73′ 20. Ethane Azoulay); 10. Ronen Hanzis (62′ 7. Roy Korine), 11. Liroy Gabay (62′ 22. Tal Torgeman), 17. Suf Podgoreanu.
Macedonia: 1. Marko Alchevski; 6. Gorazd Stojmenov, 4. Dimitar Todorovski (C), 5. Ivan Nikolov, 17. Behar Fetai (82′ 19. Azer Omeragikj); 10. Vlada Novevski, 2. Aleksandar Gjurkovski; 11. Mario Kosteski (70′ 3. Ali Asani), 9. Metodi Maksimov, 18. Luka Stankovski (46′ 8. Mario Ilievski); 20. Besfort Arifi (86′ 7. Sava Avramovski).
Yellow cards: Zargary, Elimelech, Hanzis, Gabay, Ben Hamo, Rosen (I)
Red cards: /
Referee: Espen Eskås 

Click on the image to view the match photo gallery.

In the other match of this round played earlier today, Spain easily smashed the Faroe Islands with 6:0, the same result with which Israel defeated them on Saturday.

The qualifications tournament will close on Friday when Macedonia will face the Faroe Islands, while Spain will play against Israel. Both matches will kick-off at 14.30 CET.

Current standings:

	M	W	D	L	GD	P
Israel	2	2	0	0	10:1	6	Elite round
Spain	2	2	0	0	7:0	6	Elite round
Macedonia	2	0	0	2	1:5	0
Faroe Islands	2	0	0	2	0:12	0