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U21 disastrous qualifications

altU21 national team with results as bad as Andorra’s in qualifications for EURO 2011.

What is happening with the U21 national team? Instead of better results, now, once many players are playing in European clubs, the team is sinking without a trace. Macedonia U21 are slowly becoming a team from the format of Andorra, San Marino or Lichtenstein. And, really. Looking at all the groups from the qualifications, Macedonia is only better then Andorra, San Marino, Lichtenstein and Malta.The likes of Azerbaijan, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Lithuania, Albania, Kazakhstan…They have all collected more points then Macedonia.

We must admit, Macedonia had one very tough group, where England, Portugal and Greece rightly were considered favorites in front of every match. But, we at least had right to hope for wins over Lithuania. But, we did not see them. We did saw a 5-1 defeat to Slovenia in friendly, though. And, if we leave aside the Yemen tournament, Babunski’s only victory as a coach of the U21 national team came against Serbia in a friendly in Skopje, March this year.

What might be the problem? It is a fact we have some amazing players. MacedonianFootball.com once questioned Babunski’s choice of players*. We don’t want to believe that the hopes of Macedonian football are as low as Andorra’s or San Marino’s. We know that is not right and many of the players of this squad will be wearing the seniors shirt sooner rather then later. But, then, how should we bare with this huge failure. It was put aside because of the seniors national team bad results, but it must not be neglected! U21 teams are the foundation for successful future. We should have it, but someone should see it, recognize it and make it happen.

*in Macedonian

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