Moment in the match, photo: lusa.pt

U21 friendly: Portugal – Macedonia 2:1

Moment in the match, photo: lusa.ptThe friendly encounter between the U21 national teams of Portugal and Macedonia ended in a 2:1 victory for the former with Fredy scoring the game winner in the 82nd minute with a great strike from long range.

The friendly can be best described as a tale of two halves.  Portugal controlled possession in the 1st half where the game was basically played on Macedonia’s half of the field.  Goalkeeper Stole Dimitrievski made a very good save early in the 4th minute on an effort from close range while the rebound opportunity saw a Portuguese player send a header just wide of the goal.  For Macedonia, the attacking department was pretty quiet as the lone chance came in the 11th minute when Dragan Gjorgiev’s shot was saved.  In the 24th minute, Portugal took the deserving lead when a shot headed towards goal was tapped in from close range by Andre Martins.  Portugal created several other chances but the score remained 1:0 at halftime.

In the 2nd half, with Portugal U21 fielding completely different 11 players from the ones that started the match, Macedonia started to play much better.  The first great chance of the 2nd half, however, fell to Portugal in the 48th minute but Dimitrievski made another good save to keep the score at 1:0.  Macedonia would eventually level the score in the 77th minute thanks to Vardar teammates Mite Cikarski and Dragan Gjorgiev.  Cikarski sent a cross from the left hand side which was sent home by Gjorgiev, the most threatening player for Macedonia.  The tied game only lasted for about five minutes through after Fredy scored a great goal from distance in the 82nd minute to help Portugal regain the lead.  Gjorgiev had a good chance to equalize once again in the 87th minute after he received a good ball ball over the top but his shot was saved by the Portuguese keeper and it resulted in a corner.  That proved to be the final chance for Macedonia as Portugal held on to get the narrow win.

Of the 18 players called up by the Macedonia U21 national team, only the backup keeper in Andreja Efremov did not get a chance to enter the game.

(Highlights of the match)

Portugal U21 – Macedonia U21 2:1 (1:0)

Scorers: 24′ Andre Martins, 82′ Fredy – 77′ Gjorgiev

Portugal U21: Anthony Lopes (32′ Cristiano, 63′ Michael Mika); Cedric Soares (46′ Filipe Joao Amorim), Pedro Mendes (46′ Silva Goncalo), Santos Vitor Bastos (46′ Araujo Anibal Capela), Ruben Ferreira (46′ Luis Martins), Andre Almeida (46′ Diogo Amado), Andre Martins (46′ Sergio Oliveira), Josue (46′ Antonio Leandro Pimenta), Abel (46′ Fredy), Jose Salvador Agra (46′ Rui Fonte), David Simao (46′ Bruno Wilson Eduardo).

Macedonia U21: Dimitrievski; Gjorgievski (56′ Drobarov), Stankov, Ristevski, Abdula (51′ Cikarski), Tairi (52′ Najdoski), Micevski (61′ Hristov), Husmani (70′ Bajrami), Timov (46′ Ashkovski), Gjorgiev, Randjelovic.

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