Vardar improved upon last week’s subpar performance in Romania, but still fell short as Steaua București collected a 1:2 road to clinch a 5:1 aggregate victory over the two games.

The defending Macedonian champions opened much better in today’s game with a lot of running that put pressure on the Steaua București defenders.  Vardar looked more motivated early on, but after the opening 10 minutes, which seemed to take a lot of energy out of the home team, the players began to tire and that’s when Steaua București started to take control.  The breakthrough didn’t come until the 23rd minute when Nicolae Stanciu went around a Vardar player and then sent a cross that was sent to the back of the net by striker Federico Piovaccari.

Despite the goal, and the fact that Vardar would now need five goals to turn around the aggregate score, the players didn’t quit and were rewarded with an equalizer just before halftime.  Right winger Jorge Gimenez sent a precise cross into the box that was headed home by Jovan Kostovski.  His header went just over the outstretched arms of Steaua keeper Ciprian Tătărușanu.

Early in the second half, Kostovski had another similar attempt but his header this time went just inches wide of the left goal post.  On the other end, Steaua was peppering Vardar’s goal with shot after shot but keeper Igor Pavlovic was on top of his game and made a number of good saves.  However, there was nothing he can do in the 72nd minute when Steaua captain Alexandru Bourceanu sent a powerful shot which proved to be the game winning goal.

Vardar did have a chance to make it 2:2 in the 90th minute when Kostovski found himself one on one after some poor defending, but his effort was saved by Tătărușanu to keep the score at 1:2.  With that, Vardar was eliminated from the UEFA Champions League by losing 1:5 on aggregate.  Steaua moves on to the third qualifying round where they will take on Dinamo Tbilisi, a team that features Macedonian international Darko Glishikj.

National Arena Philip II of Macedon in Skopje
Vardar – Steaua 1:2 (1:1)
Scorers: 45’+1 Kostovski (V) – 23′ Piovaccari, 72′ Bourceanu (S)
Vardar: Pavlović; Reljić, Bojović (c), Tanevski, Cikarski; Temelkov, Petrović (80′ Manevski); Stojkov (67′ Gjorgiev), Petrov, Giménez (89′ Simjanoski); Kostovski. Manager: Blagoja Milevski.
Steaua: Tătărușanu; Georgievski, Szukała, Gardoș, Latovlevici; Bourceanu (c), Pintilii (77′ Răduț); Popa, Stanciu, Pârvulescu (54′ Iancu); Piovaccari (46′ Nikolić). Manager: Laurențiu Reghecampf.
Yellow cards: Pintilii, Piovaccari, Szukała (S)
Red cards: /
Referee: Oleksandr Derdo (Ukraine)
Assistants: Igor Bytskalo, Semen Shlonchak; Fourth official: Viktor Shvetsov (all Ukraine).

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