Blagoja Milevski, manager of the U21 team, announced his squad for the upcoming games against Ukraine and Australia.
There were not many changes to the U21 roster after the 3:0 loss to Iceland back in June. Guys like Dejan Iliev, Enis Bardhi, Daniel Avramovski and Hristijan Denkovski return from injuries, while Dorian Babunski and Filip Pivkovski were not called up this time. Milevski said Dorian and Filip are still without a club, so that was the reason for their omission. That means Dorian Babunski is no longer with the youth academy of Real Madrid. Furthermore, domestic based players like Vardar attacker Jasir Asani and Sileks defender Angelche Timovski were also missing from the squad. Those can be described as mild surprises.
The only new name on the list is Mevlan Murati, a right-back. He is currently on loan at Shkupi from Shkendija. He will compete with Filip Ristovski for playing time at that position.
Macedonia plays an U21 qualifier against Ukraine on September 5 before then facing Australia U21 in a friendly two days later. The priority is the Ukraine fixture, though. The team wants to prove that the Iceland result, a 3:0 loss, was a fluke and nothing more. We’ll see how the players respond.
Both games will take place at the “Petar Miloshevski” training center . The Macedonian federation made the necessary improvements there in order to meet UEFA standards for that training center to be allowed to host both youth national team qualifiers and friendlies in the future.
Complete Squad:
Dejan Iliev – Arsenal U21
Damjan Shishkovski – Rabotnichki
Igor Aleksovski – Makedonija GjP
Filip Ristovski – Metalurg
Mevlan Murati – Shkupi
Gjoko Zajkov – Charleroi
Darko Velkovski – Vardar
Visar Musliu – Renova
Leon Najdovski – Rabotnichki
Besir Demiri – Shkendija
David Babunski – Barcelona B
Daniel Avramovski – OFK Beograd
Boban Nikolov – Vardar
Enis Bardhi – Ujpest
Phil Petreski – Melbourne City Youth
Burhan Mustafov – Pelister
Nicola Kuleski – Sydney Youth
Hristijan Denkovski – Groningen II
Marjan Radeski – Shkendija
Valmir Nafiu – APOEL
Kire Markoski – Rabotnichki
Demir Imeri – Turnovo
Viktor Angelov – Metalurg
From the 23 summoned players, 14 play domestically in Macedonia.