The Macedonian champion played its last home match in the league phase of the Conference League this season and recorded a 2:0 over Slovak most popular club Slovan from the capital city of Bratislava.

photo by KF Shkëndija Tetovo: Sebastjan Spahiu with the ball in front of Vladimír Weiss

Head coach Jeton Bekjiri started with Baboucarr Gaye between the posts, in the defense Ronaldo Webster, Klisman Cake, Imran Fetai and Aleksander Trumçi, in the midfield Kamer Qaka, Reshat Ramadani and Arbin Zejnulai, Liridon Latifi and Sebastjan Spahiu as wingers, while captain Besart Ibraimi up front. Nigerian midfielder Adamu Alhassan was suspended for this match after collecting 3 yellow cards, while Senegalese attacker Farbrice Tamba wasn’t called up without explanation given.

Slovan, lead by legendary coach Vladimír Weiss, former head coach of the national team of Slovakia, and also player of both Czechoslovakia and Slovakia, had some interesting names in the team. Georgian national team central defender Guram Kashia, former Slovakia national team attackers Róbert Mak and coach’s son Vladimír Weiss, and the right back of the national team of Panama, César Blackman, who should appear at the 2026 World Cup. On the bench was former Vardar winger and Armenian national team player Tigran Barseghyan, who is very familiar the match day stadium. Slovenia national team forward Andraž Šporar was not in today’s squad.

Expected to be the most difficult match for Shkëndija, actually it was quite the opposite as Slovan today was no match for Shkëndija. The visitors only pressed in the opening few minutes and later Shkëndija started to play without fear.

Captain Ibraimi took a corner kick in the 33rd minute, was looking for Latifi and the near post, but visiting defender Bajric headed the ball in his own net.

Just before the break Shkëndija doubled the lead. The fists minute of the injury time was underway when Webster penetrated into the box from right and perfectly served Spahiu on the far post who only had to touch gently the ball on a empty net.

After the break Slovan failed to create serious chances and never really tasted Gaye. Their best chance was in the 6th minute of the stoppage time when Marcelli hit the outside of the post.

Shkëndija had more chances and some good looking counter attacks that were not converted as the last pass was not well given. In the 88th minute substitute Ademi hit the post.

Highlights:

With this win Shkëndija now has 7 points and is back in the battle for a place in the top 24 teams that will advance in the next round.

After the match Slovan’s coach Weiss said that his team fell apart after the opening goal and everything from that moment was not working. Slovan came in Skopje after two back-to-back losses in the domestic league. Interesting fact is that Weiss visited Skopje for the third time and still is without a win. As coach of Slovakia he lead his national team in October 2011 in a 1:1 draw against Macedonia (his son also played), while in October 2020 he recorded the same result this time as coach of Georgia. “Macedonia is a beautiful country, but every time I come here I can’t win and that is not good for me.” – said Weiss.

“Today Shkëndija did not play well, played spectacular. We have now one more match in Cyprus where we will go to enjoy football and try to collect points in order for this adventure to continue.” – said home coach Bekjiri.

Coach Jeton Bekjiri (R) at the post match press-conference; photo: Filip Zdraveski

The next and last match for Shkëndija in the Conference League will be on 18 December against AEK from Larnaca. The match will be played in Cyprus.