A confident Vardar qualified in the third round of the Champions League after beating the Swedish champion Malmo in Strumica.
Vardar came to the game with a solid 1:1 result from the first away game, but went under quickly after Markus Rosenberg converted a penalty awarded against Vardar goalkeeper Filip Gacevski in the 15th minute. Vardar tried to get back in the game for the rest of the first half and its players were incensed when, just before halftime, Ukrainian referee Zabcenko failed to award Vardar a penalty shot after a Malmo player stopped the ball with his hand ahead of his goal.
After these disappointments, Vardar headed strong against Malmo in the second half and quickly, in the 56 minute, captain Boban Grncarov evened the score. Five minutes later Armenian player Tigran Barseghyan scored on the rebound after a failed penalty by Juan Filipe and Vardar were ahead. The final 3:1 score was set by youth national team member Boban Nikolov who tapped the ball in the empty net after an attack by Blazevski.
