U21: Macedonia v Scotland moved for October 11

Macedonia U21 before the game against France away; photo: Zimbio / AFP / Jean-François MonierThe decisive EURO qualifier was moved to the last date of the qualifiers in order for all matches to be played at the same time.

The Football Federation of Macedonia made a request to UEFA to reschedule Macedonia’s last match in the 2017 EURO qualifiers. The game was originally scheduled for 8 October, but now it will be played on the 11th with a kick-off at 18.45.

The reason for doing so is that Macedonia is still in game for qualifying and it would be unfair to play its last game three games before the other two rivals, France and Iceland, whose last games were scheduled for the 11th right from the start. Now the last round of the Group 3 will be completed on the same night.

Macedonia is currently topping the table with 18 points, then comes France with 17, while Iceland has 15 but a game more to play. Iceland will first welcome Scotland on the 5th, while in the last round has another home game, this time with Ukraine. Iceland must at least play a draw in one of these games in order for Macedonia to qualify with a win because even if Macedonia beats Scotland, it will be Pyrrhic win if Iceland wins 6 points.

The moving of the match brings another good news. Since two days will pass from the senior match where Macedonia hosts Italy in the 2018 World qualifiers, the U21 can use the National Arena Philip II of Macedon and with a huge support from the crowd to beat Scotland. If the game was still to be played on the 8th, it would have been played at the Petar Miloshevski training center because FIFA doesn’t allow a same stadium to host two games in less then 36 hours. Another thing worth to mention is that the 11th of October is a big national holiday in Macedonia as it marks the beginning of Anti-fascist war during WWII in 1941.

Confirmation of the new date at UEFA.com

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