A missed penalty prevented Macedonia from drawing against Sweden in the first of the two friendly matches.
The U19 national team of Macedonia played its second friendly as part of the preparations for the new qualifying cycle. After losing 2:1 to Bulgaria ten days ago, Macedonia U19 suffered another defeat on Tuesday. In this match, Macedonia never looked inferior to Sweden, creating several quality chances, but visiting keeper David Olsson was on top of his game. He was definitely the man of the match, making crucial saves including a late penalty.
Sweden scored the lone goal of the game in the 29th minute when Erik Andersson scored directly from a free kick. Macedonia had the best chance for an equalizer in the 88th minute when Amir Al-Ammari used his hand inside the area. That led to a penalty, but captain Petar Petkovski had his effort saved by Olsson.
In something that has become common occurrence, manager Goran Stanikj was happy with the performance, but not the result: “I am satisfied with the game, but unfortunately we failed to convert many of our chances. I would like to highlight that in every new game we make less mistakes. We just have to work on a few things and to start scoring.”
Both teams will square off once again on Thursday at 17.00 CET at the Petar Miloshevski training center, the same venue as today’s game.
Petar Miloshevski training center in Skopje
Macedonia U19 – Sweden U19 0:1 (0:1)
Goalscorer: 29′ Erik Anderssen
Macedonia: Filip Ilikj; Sabahudin Alomerovikj, Stefan Jevtoski, Shaip Tela, Slobodan Bocevski; Davor Zdravkovski, Matej Cvetanovski (66′ Nehar Sadiki), Sashe Shoposki (87′ Stefan Lazarevikj), Petar Petkovski (C); Valentin Kochoski, Strahinja Krstevski (46′ Remzifaik Selmani).
Sweden: David Olsson; Anton Maikkula (84′ Johan Brannefalk), Filip Dagerstål (C), Alexander Leksell, Amir Al-Ammari; Gustav Berggren (77′ Jacob Ortmark), Christian Rubio Sivodedov, Erik Andersson (84′ Tshutshu Wa Tshakasua); Jordan Larsson, Marko Nikolić (77′ Adnan Marić), Gustaf NIlsson.
Yellow cards: Kochoski, Jevtoski (MKD), Larsson, Berggren, Al-Ammari (SWE)
Red cards: /
Referee: Konstantin Vlaho (Macedonia)