The Macedonian national team suffered a heavy defeat against Denmark in Copenhagen in the semifinal qualifying playoff match for a place in the World Cup that will be held this summer in Canada, the USA, and Mexico.
photo by FFM
In an extremely pale and disorganized game, without any energy and with just one shot on the opponent’s goal, we did not deserve anything more. We were even lucky that goalkeeper Dimitrievski had several outstanding saves, otherwise the defeat would have been even heavier. The match, which was ambitiously announced with a lot of optimism, ultimately turned into a big disappointment.
The first half passed with field dominance by the hosts, who mostly tried with long-distance shots, but our defense led by Dimitrievski managed to remain unbeaten. In the second half a total collapse of our team followed. The match was decided in ten minutes when we conceded three goals between the 49th and 59th minute. Denmark took the lead through Damsgaard four minutes after the start of the second half, who took advantage of the poor reaction in our defense. This was followed by two goals from Isaksen in less than two minutes in the 58th and 59th minutes, effectively deciding the match. The final result was set by Norgard in the 75th minute, who reacted excellently after a corner kick taken by Eriksen, although the impression is that Eriksen would have scored directly from the corner even without Norgard touching the ball, which is yet another indicator of our collapse in the second half.
As a sidenote, in this game two players made their debut for Macedonia. Left back Sebastian Herrera Cardona who is a naturalized Colombian and gained the right to play for Macedonia due to a five year stint as a player in the Macedonian top division, and Danny Musovski, a player born in the USA.
Macedonia’s next game is upcoming Tuesday in Dublin where the Lions will face Ireland in a friendly.
March 26th, Parken Stadium in København, Attendance 35.746
Denmark – Macedonia 4:0 (0:0)
49′ Mikkel Damsgaard, 58′ 59′ Gustav Isaksen, 75′ Christian Nørgaard
Denmark: Hermansen, Bah (81′ Høghsberg), Maehle, Nelsson, Nørgaard (86′ Provstgaard), Hjulmand, Højbjerg, Isaksen (73′ Eriksen), Højlund (81′ Høgh), Froholdt, Damsgaard (86′ Nartey). Coach: Brian Riemer
Macedonia: Dimitrievski, Churlinov (64′ Doriev), Herrera, Stojchevski, Zajkov, Musliu, Elmas, Atanasov (64′ Alimi), Rastoder (77′ Musovski), Bardhi, Kjamili (64′ Miovski). Coach: Goce Sedloski
Yellow cards: Eljif Elmas, Enis Bardhi (MKD)
Referee: Felix Zwayer (GER)
The goals: