Germany got a fierce revenge for the March surprising defeat and managed to win 4:0 in Skopje with all goals coming after the break.
photo by UEFA: Werner attempts a shot
Macedonia suffered a disastrous defeat by Germany. That kind of defeat is not really a big shock when it comes from a footballing giant like Germany, but seeing the play that the Macedonians demonstrated can only be explained by that word. Macedonia on this match did not play football and right from the start our players were trying to kill the time, obviously hopping for a goalless draw.
Germany dominated right from the start, giving away no possession. However, the first serious attempt was by the Macedonians when a counter attack resulted in a corner kick after which Velkovski tried a header, but missed the target.
Big blow for Macedonia was about to happen when Ademi made a foul on Havertz injured himself. It didn’t look good for him, but after a medical help he got back. Raum took the free kick and hit the wall, while the rebound fall to Gnabry who had his effort saved. few minute later and Ademi went down again, not being able to continue. Stefan Spirovski took his place.
In the second injury minute before the break Werner hit the post. Müller took the rebound but his shot got blocked for corner. Macedonia managed to held Germany after 45 minutes, but the way of playing wasn’t promising a good outcome.
Alioski and Gnabry; photo: FFM
Five minutes into the second half Germany broke the dead lock. And it wasn’t after some great action, but after s terrible pass from Velkovski got intercepted on midfield. Germany went the other way and scored a simple goal through Havertz. Ruthless and too easy. So preventable too. Unforgivable mistake by Velkovski.
In the 70th minute Werner got his revenge on Macedonia (you must remember his epic miss in March). Müller nicely served him in the box and he got on a classy finish.
Just three minute later and the score was 0:3. Werner got his second goal of the game with a beautiful curler.
The 84th minute was underway when another giveaway lead to a goal. Gnabry intercepted a pass from Musliu and set up Musiala for the goal. That was Musiala’s first goal ever for Germany.
Macedonia had one great chance to at least score one goal when in the 89th minute Miovski set a through ball for Churlinov. the later got one on one with Neuer but his shot, though, went well over, not even testing the famous keeper.
The match ended 0:4. Macedonia got totally overmatched in the second half. Terrible giveaway lead to the first German goal. Afterwards, the body language of our players was defeated, and our resistance, or lack thereof, followed.
Highlights:
In the other two matches in our group Romania took much needed 3 points by defeating Armenia 1:0, while Iceland demolished Liechtenstein with 4:0. The qualifiers will close next month when Macedonia travels to Armenia and later hosts Iceland. Since captain Ristovski got his second yellow card in these qualifiers, he will miss the Armenia match.
Facts regarding this match:
- 50th appearance for Stole Dimitrievski
- 40th appearance for Boban Nikolov.
- 35th appearance for Elif Elmas.
- 10th appearance for Darko Churlinov.