Macedonia Coach Igor Angelovski warns Italy “are the absolute favourites, but we will try to give our best” in the World Cup qualifier.
It kicks off in Skopje on Sunday at 19.45 UK time (18.45 GMT).
“Italy are the absolute favourites, but we will try to give our best,” said the Coach.
“We have one thing in common with Italy: Goran Pandev! I’m just kidding, we both play a 3-5-2 system.”
However, technically Macedonia use a 5-3-2 shape with a much more defensive approach.
Both forwards play in Serie A, as Pandev is at Genoa and Ilija Nestorovski is doing well at Palermo this season.
“Giampiero Ventura has not changed much compared to the Antonio Conte era and the players are pretty much the same as at Euro 2016. If there are changes, I expect them to be very minor.”
Macedonia have so far lost both their World Cup qualifiers in this group, falling 2-1 in Macedonia on September 6 and on Thursday beaten 2-1 on home turf by Israel.
Macedonia (probable): Bogatinov; Ristovski, Mojsov, Shikov, Ristevski, Zhuta; Hasani, Ibraimi, Alioski; Pandev, Nestorovski
Italy (probable): Buffon; Barzagli, Bonucci, Romagnoli; Candreva, Parolo, Parolo, Verratti, Bonaventura, De Sciglio; Belotti, Immobile
