Macedonia WIN, but Ilievski not satisfied

News.ssport.net (Jun 07, 2003) - Macedonia has marked the first victory in the qualifiers for EURO 2004. In front of 5,000 spectators at the City Stadium in Skopje, Macedonia defeated Liechtenstein with 3-1.

Krstev

The scorers of the goals for Macedonia were: Sedloski 39' (from a penalty kick), Krstev 52' and Stojkov 82', while Roger Beck 20' has scored the goal for Liechtenstein. Macedonia started the match poorly as the visitors were in the lead with the goal of Roger Beck. That was the first and the only chance in the match for Liechtenstein and they used it well.

Then Macedonia completely took the control of the play and as a result of the 39th minute Liechtenstein goalkeeper Jehle brought down forward Ilco Naumoski in the box resulting in a penalty. Macedonia captain Goce Sedloski succesfully took the penalty kick and equalised 1-1.

In the second half Macedonia was dominant and already in the 52nd minute we came in the lead by the wonderful goal of Mile Krstev with a volley kick from 12 metres. The final result was set up by the man of the match Ace Stojkov in the 82nd minute after the great pass from the right side by the scorer of the second goal Krstev. Besides this victory Macedonia didn't show some quality in the play and these three points are more a result of an experience than a quality.

Macedonia coach Nikola Ilievski said "I'm satisfied with the result but not with how my players played. I expect them to score more goals in a game like this but we wasted too many chances. We didn't play in the way I had told my players before the game and I was also surprised that some players played below their capacity."

On Wednesday at 11th June Macedonia plays the fifth match in the EURO 2004 qualifiers on away in Istanbul against the home team of Turkey.