An impressive start by Macedonia in the qualifiers for the next U21 European Championship. The young Lions demolished the Faroe Islands at the Petar Milosevski stadium with 7:1.

photo by FFM: celebration after one of the goals

In the opener of the new qualifiers coach Bobi Milevski started with his usual 4-2-3-1 system. Jankov was on goal, Todoroski, Lichina, Rufati and Antovski were part of the defense, captain Zdravkovski and Atanasov played in defensive midfield, while Mitrovski, Daci and Churlinov played behind center-forward Milan Ristovski, the younger brother of senior national team member Stefan.

Mitrovski celebrates one of his three goals; photo: FFM

The opener was surprisingly netted by the visitors in the 19th minute who converted a penalty after a hand ball by central back Rufati. But the Macedonian youngsters were not much impressed and equalized seven minutes later by Mitrovski after Churlinov’s assist. In the 32nd minute Churlinov scored the 2:1 lead, while Mitrovski made it 3:1 in the 3rd minute of the first half’s stoppage time when he scored with a left-footed shot after Zdravkovski’s nice assist. After the break Macedonia started a little bit slower, but the last half hour was football in just one direction. Daci netted the 4:1 in the 59th minute when he headed home Todoroski’s cross, Lichina made it 5:1 just three minutes later after a free-kick by Mitrovski, while Mitrovski and Churlinov made the last two goals in the 85th and 88th minute, both goals coming from assists by substitution Trapanovski. Besides the mentioned Trapanovski also Jovanov, Trajceski, Abaz and Krstovski came off the bench during the second half.

Click here to view the match report.

All over an impressive win, nevertheless we have to see how good the other opponents are as Faroe Islands obviously lacked quality and is probably the weakest team of our group. Spain should be the toughest opponent, whereas our talented U21 should be able to compete against Israel, Montenegro and Kazakhstan. As a reminder even the second placed team of the group has a chance for a spot on the upcoming U21 EURO as 16 countries will take part.

This win actually equal the 7:1 against Bulgaria in the mid 90s on a friendly match played in Radovish. However, it is the highest in the qualifiers ever topping the 6:1 against Gibraltar in the previous edition.