In a thrilling, fast paced game, Macedonia and Albania drew 1:1 in their 2018 World Championship qualifier that was played in Strumica on Tuesday evening.
Our team had more of the possession and created numerous chances to score, but were often denied by Albanian goalkeeper Etrit Berisha, who was in great form. Eventually, in the 53 minute, Odise Roshi was well placed to receive a long cross in front of the Macedonian goal and skillfully headed the ball into Stole Dimitrievski’s goal.
This opened the Macedonian game even further, and coach Igor Angelovski kept adding strikers to the team, to the cheers of the home fans. Macedonia pressed the ball forward, but Albania remained dangerous in the counter-attacks. The Macedonian onslaught paid off in the 78th minute, when Albanian defense handled the ball in front of the goal and the referee awarded a penalty for Macedonia, which was confidently converted by Aleksandat Trajkovski.
Ezgijan Alioski kept piercing the Albanian defense, and also tried his distance shot and together with Ilija Nestorovski had the best chance to win the game for Macedonia, but Berisha remained composed and saved a point for Albania.
Coach Angelovski said that it was the Albanian goalkeeper who saved the game for them, and that it was unfortunate that Albania scored from virtually the first chance it created in the game. “It is clear that our players were in good form if we are now regretting that we didn’t win against a team which qualified for the previous European Championship. All we lacked was better play in the finishing touches of our attacks”, said Angelovski. Encouraged by the win against Israel and the result against Albania, midfielder Boban Nikolov promised the fans that in the nex qualifying cycle this Macedonian team will compete for ne of the first two group places. Team captain Goran Pandev was grateful to the younger players, who previously excelled in the U-21 team, for rejuvenating the national team. “We played two good quality games in three days and this brings us hope. The young players brought freshness in our team and that clearly shows”, said Pandev.
Albanian coach Christian Panucci said that he is satisfied with the performance of his team and that the draw is a realistic outcome. “We were not at the required level in the first half of the game, and this is why I did two swaps. We scored quickly in the second half and had a chance to put the game away through Sadiku. We received a goal from a penalty and Macedonia had a chance to win it in the end, but I think that the draw is a fair result”, said Panucci.
In the other Group G qualifiers, Italy beat Israel 1:0 and Lichtenstein was drubbed 8:0 by Spain. Spain leads the group with 22 points, ahead of Italy with 19 and Albania with 13 points. Israel has 9, followed by Macedonia with 7 and Lichtenstein has no points.
