The Macedonian U19 national team will host the 2027 EURO Round 2 qualifying tournament and for that occasion coach Dimitar Kapinkovski summoned 21 players.

photo FFM: coach Dimitar Kapinkovski

Macedonia is competing in Group 5 of League B. Only the group winner will be promoted to League A for Round 3 of the EURO qualifiers. Seven group winners of Round 3 will qualify to the final tournament joining host Czechia.

Our young players failed in Round 1 as they played a draw against Faroe Islands (0:0) and Moldova (1:1) and recorded a 4:0 defeat against the Netherlands, scoring only one goal in the three matches. The tournament was played in the Netherlands.

The Round 2 tournament will be played in the city of Strumica and the nearby village of Turnovo with Macedonia playing all three matches in the village.

Coach Kapinkovski called up 21 players of which 11 domestic based and 10 internationals. Most players, 4 come from domestic U19 champion Brera Strumica who just recently ended its run in the UEFA Youth League after playing four matches.

After a long absence due to injury, one of the most talented footballers of this generation, Aleksandar Grasheski from Croatian giant Dinamo from Zagreb, is returning to the national team, while a big boost in the attack should come from the member of the English Premier League side Leeds, Ditmir Hodja, and from Muhamed Kurtishi from Swiss team Rapperswil-Jona, who made his debut for our U21 national team back in March.

Surprisingly, Stefan Brankovski from Maribor, who is in great form, was left out of the list, but as a kind of a paradox, calls went to Jordan Damevski from Åkra, the bottom-placed team in one of the Norwegian fourth tier groups, as well as Lavdrim Kasami from the U19 team of the Turkish second league club Ümraniyespor, who hasn’t had any playing time in the past two months.

Aleksandar Trajkovski – Brera Strumica
Pavel Grbevski – Teteks
Besjan Aliju – Bashkimi

Alban Rochi – Struga
Kristian Markoski – Köln
Mateo Kesikj – Jedinstvo Ub
Muhammed Mustafi – St.Gallen
Filip Cvetkovski – Vardar
Anes Abdurahmani – Shkëndija

Gabriel Taleski – Brera Strumica
Bojan Velkov – Brera Strumica
Ivan Tanchev – Brera Strumica
Lorent Zhaku – Bylis
Aleksandar Grasheski – Dinamo
Lavdrim Kasami – Ümraniyespor

Muhamed Kurtishi – Rapperswil-Jona
Jovan Mrmachovski – Pelister
Jakov Stojkovski – Paderborn
Jordan Damevski – Åkra
Ditmir Hodja – Leeds United
Antian Emini – Kozhuf

Schedule:

11 November at 13.00 CET
Switzerland – Malta at Blagoj Istatov stadium in Strumica
Macedonia – Northern Ireland at Kukush stadium in Turnovo

14 November at 13.00 CET
Switzerland – Macedonia at Kukush stadium in Turnovo
Northern Ireland – Malta at Blagoj Istatov stadium in Strumica

17 November at 12.00 CET
Northern Ireland – Switzerland at Blagoj Istatov stadium in Strumica
Malta – Macedonia at Kukush stadium in Turnovo