Macedonia U21 found out their opponents on the way to EURO 2013. What are the ambitions, what are the chances of the team?

Denmark, Serbia, Northern Ireland and Faroe Islands. Those are the teams that will compete with Macedonia in group 4 for a spot in Israel 2013.

At first sight, strong opponents but not too attractive. Boban Babunski, U21 coach shares the same view. ‘We have to repeat good matches from last tournament but with much better results. Our main goal is to collect most points than any former U21 national team got.’ – said Babunski after the draw.

Former Pelister forward, now in Skoda Xanthi, Marjan Altiparmakovski, thinks we got an interesting group. ‘We can compete against all teams and we can beat them. With self-confidence and strong character we could be in Israel in 2013. We are looking forward to show our abilities’ – Altiparmakovski told MacedonianFootball.com

Goals will be expected from Marjan, but also from Ilija Nestorovski. Slovácko‘s forward thinks that the group is solid, although without really attractive opponents. ‘But, that is where I see our chance. The atmosphere in the team is amazing, we are all really good friends and most important of all, we’ve played together more then a year. We hope that is the key to the success and we can finally make Macedonia happy by qualifying to European Championship.’ – Nestorovski pointed out his view. 

Vladica Brdarovski is also one of the regular U21 members. He has recently transferred to Zbrojovka Brno and gave us a statement about his expectations. ‘This group is excellent for us. We have good chances for producing great results and I am especially pleased that the atmosphere within the teammates is on a superb level. This is an opportunity for a historic success.’

And, when one thinks about – why not? Yes, U21 had bad result in the past tournament, but also had a very tough group with Portugal, England, Greece and Lithuania. Present opponents give an option to be optimistic. Faroe Islands and Northern Ireland are surely not to be underestimated, but results against them from this talented generation are to be expected. Also, Macedonia U21 beat Serbia U21 1:0 in March last year. The players are together for a longer time, they are mostly part of European clubs – and most importantly: They are eager to show what they know. Everyone thinks they got a good group and are willing to give more then 100% to show that they can make every Macedonian fan proud.