The Macedonian U21 national team twice took the lead against its counterparts from Albania but today’s opponents responded each time and the friendly would finish 2:2.

The draw meant that the Macedonian U21 national team has now gone 15 games without a defeat.  Aleksandar Trajkovski, who scored in the Netherlands friendly this past Tuesday, added another goal in today’s game to give Macedonia an early lead in the 5th minute.  Albania tied the game at 1:1 around the 25th minute and that would be the score heading into halftime.

In the 65th minute, 18-year-old David Babunski scored his first goal for the U21 team to hand Macedonia the lead once again.  However, Albania U21 responded and completed the 2:2 scoreline in the 85th minute to ensure a draw.  The manager gave a chance to some players who did not feature in the Netherlands friendly.  Stefan Ashkovski and Eldis Bajrami, for instance, made their debuts for the U21 national team.  The starting lineup looked drastically different in the Albania game as Babunski decided to rest a certain group of players who featured this past Tuesday against the Netherlands.

Thus, in the two friendlies played in Austria, which served as preparation for the two important qualifiers in early June against Faroe Islands and Denmark, Macedonia picked up an impressive 1:0 win over the Netherlands, and followed that up with a 2:2 draw against Albania.

The U21 national team coach Boban Babunski started with the following 11 against Albania:

Dimitrievski – Gjorgievski, Mitrevski, Ristevski, Siljanovski – Micevski, Husmani, Bajrami – Babunski, Trajkovski, Hristov.

Also played: Gachevski, Brdarovski Bogdanovic, Ashkovski, Timov, Altiparmakovski.