Vardar played an uneventful goalless draw against BATE Borisov and was officially eliminated from the UEFA Champions League by losing 2:3 on aggregate.

Vardar will rue the missed opportunity from the first leg when it conceded two late goals in stoppage time to suffer a 2:3 loss.  BATE Borisov proved tough to break down in the return leg and held Vardar to a goalless draw to progress to the next round.  Vardar made two changes from the first leg.  Abraham Alechenwu had some visa issues so youngster Mite Cikarski started at left back, while Jorge Gimenez started for Igor Stojaković in midfield.

BATE had several good chances in the 1st half, the biggest coming in the 19th minute when Artem Kontsevoi struck the crossbar.  Earlier in the 10th minute, Marko Simić had another good opportunity but sent his effort narrowly wide of the goal from a good position.  The first real opportunity for Vardar came in the 36th minute through Aleksandar Temelkov but his header missed the target.

At the beginning of the 2nd half, Igor Stojaković took the place of Gimenez.  BATE had an early chance in the 47th minute but keeper Kostadin Zahov made a good save to deny Vitali Rodionov.  As the game went on, Vardar got more desperate but could not break down BATE’s organized defense.  Several of the Vardar players were also shown yellow cards for protesting to the referee.  Vardar’s final chance came in the fifth and final minute of stoppage time but Jovan Kostovski’s effort was saved by the BATE keeper, and the referee soon blew the final whistle which ended the European campaign for Vardar.

BATE advances to the third qualifying round where they will face Debrecen from Hungary.

National Arena Philip II of Macedon in Skopje, Macedonia
Vardar – BATE Borisov 0:0
Referee: Paolo Valeri (ITA)
Vardar: Zahov, Ilievski, Tanevski, Vajs, Cikarski, Ranđelović (90′ Bojović), Temelkov, Gimenez (46′ Stojaković), Gjorgiev, Stjepanovikj (75′ Manevski), Kostovski.
BATE Borisov: Gorbunov, Yurevich, Likhtarovich (73′ Rudik), Volodko, Mozolevski (79′ Pavlov), Radkov, Kontsevoi, Bordachev, Rodionov, Simić, Olekhnovich.
Goalscorers: None
Yellow cards: Ilievski, Ranđelović, Tanevski, Manevski (V) – Kontsevoi (B)