Macedonian U21 national team celebrated a huge away win against Scotland.
Macedonia U21 defeated Scotland 0:1 and continued their fine form in the Euro 2017 qualifiers. The only goal of the game came in the 18th minute. Markoski used a great ball from Radeski and fired it past the home keeper.
To be fair, the hosts probably had more of the game. In the opening minutes they dominated, but the Macedonian defense led by the excellent Darko Velkovski did not give too much space. After the opening minutes, Macedonia managed to bring balance to the game and that was when Markoski scored. Scotland seemed in confusion after the goal and it took them a while until they were able to pull themselves together. Scotland had one big chance in the first half when their best scorer Cummings shot from 5 meters was miraculously stopped by Aleksovski. Aleksovski was probably man of the match saving numerous shots, some of which were truly incredible. Milevski was forced to change in the first half when Demiri suffered an injury and Pivkovski was brought in.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=doAMdoEg5Mg
In the second half Scotland pushed even more forward and Macedonia was in real trouble once Bejtulai got his second yellow card. Since then, the play was mostly on the Macedonian half and Milevski pulled out Radeski bringing another defender in Musliu. However, Aleksovski and the defenders did not allow an equalizer. The second half saw a total of 7 minutes injury time in which Scotland scored a goal which was disallowed because of a foul over Aleksovski. In the 96th minute the main referee pointed to the spot but later his decision was changed after a suggestion by the assistant and the replays showed it was an obvious handball by a home player. In the meantime, Aleksovski suffered an injury and finished the match injured which saw him having troubles in taking goal-kicks but overall his performance definitely stood out.
Scotland’s Jordan McGhee react to the game:
Macedonia now has two remaining games and both at home. First, on 6th of September Macedonia hosts Northern Ireland and then in October Scotland. Iceland defeated Northern Ireland today 0:1 while Ukraine surprisingly won against France 1:0. This means that the group is still open as Iceland and Macedonia share the top with Iceland having a game in hand, while France is a point behind. In any case, this is probably as close as Macedonia has ever been to the top and these boys deserve our support.
Click here to view the complete match report.
Tynecastle Stadium, Edinburgh
Scotland – Macedonia 0:1 (0:1)
Goalscorer: 17′ Kire Markoski
Scotland: Kelly, Smith (75′ Nicholson), McGhee, Souttar, Kingsley, Slater (58′ McBurnie), Gauld, Henderson, Fraser (87′ King), Christie, Cummings.
Macedonia: Aleksovski, Bejtuali, Velkovski, Zajkov, Murati, Bardi, Nikolov, Markoski, Babunski (53′ Avramovski), Demiri (34′ Pivkovski), Radeski(71′ Musliu).
Referee: Sebastian Colţescu (Romania)
Yellow cards: Velkovski, Bejtulai, Markoski (M)
Red card: Bejtulai (M)