Macedonia U21 defeated Ukraine away and stayed in contention for top 2 places of the table in Euro 2017 qual. group 3
Radeski and Demiri brought Macedonia an important away win against Ukraine. Macedonia U21 needed three points here in order to stay in contention for the top 2 places and the boys delivered. Radeski opened the scoreline in the 17th minute when a ball previously dribbled by Babunski reached him in the box and he sent a great low shot to defeat Pidkivka and make it 0:1.
Ukraine pushed forward since the goal and created several chances but Macedonia’s defense led by the excellent Zajkov did not allow too dangerous opportunities for the hosts. In the second half, Macedonia seemed more organized both in the back and in the midfield and that brought the second goal. First, the team appealed for a penalty when an Ukrainian defender handled the ball in the box, but it was not given. Just in the next attack, Babunski created the play, passed to Pivkovski on the right who sent a powerful cross on the other side reaching Demiri who had no problems to send the ball in the empty net. Milevski’s choice to put Demiri as a winger turned out a great move as Demiri and Bejtulai played well in defense while Demiri used his new position to score a goal.
Since the second goal, Macedonia did not allow too many dangerous moves by the hosts, played good football and deserved this win. It is worth noting the good performance by Aleksovski who showcased real safety between the posts. The team is now level on points with Iceland and two points behind France, although Iceland has a game in hand. In any case, excellent news that this team is still in play after 7 games in the group, since that is such a rarity for Macedonian national teams.
Stadion Dynamo im. Valeriy Lobanovskiy
Ukraine – Macedonia 0:2(0:1)
Referee: Rahim Hasanov (AZE)
Ukraine: Pidkivka, Lukyanchuk, Svatok, Kacharaba, Danchenko, Vachiberadze, Zubkov (59′ Tsygankov), Sobol, Shved, Besedin, Luchkevych (75′ Arendayk)
Macedonia: Aleksovski, Bejtulai, Zajkov, Velkovski (71′ Musliu), Murati, Nikolov, Bardi, Babunski (62′ Avramovski), Radeski, Demiri, Angelov (50′ Pivkovski)
Goalscorers: 17′ Marjan Radeski, 56′ Besir Demiri
Yellow cards: Kacharaba, Vachibeadze (U) – Demiri (M)
Red cards: /