The Macedonian U-21 national team recorded its first victory in the qualifying cycle for the European Championship, after celebrating a 2:1 victory over Armenia tonight in Bitola, at the "Petar Milosevic" stadium, as part of the third round.
After a deficit in the first half, coach Goran Stanić's team managed to make a complete turnaround thanks to the two goals of Dimitar Trajkov, who first scored in the 54th minute and then in the 83rd minute, bringing Macedonia the much-desired first three points in this group. At the same time, those were also the first two goals scored by our team in these qualifiers.
Macedonia opened the match solidly, with desire and initiative from the first minutes. After Trajkov's two chances, one with a kick and the other with a header from close range, it felt like the team was looking for an early lead. However, that did not happen. Apart from Trajkov's chances, Macedonia did not create a serious threat in the first half.
On the other hand, Armenia was focused on defense, with occasional attempts through counterattacks. One such attack proved successful, after an assist from Hakobyan, Hovhannisyan found himself in a favorable position, placed a precise shot towards the far post and beat Dzekov. Our team obviously did not expect such a development of events and failed to consolidate by the end of the half.
In the second half, Macedonia went for an equalizer and succeeded in their intention. After several attempts by Memetriza and Danev, Trajkov finally "broke the ice", after a perfectly executed corner kick, the Rabotnicki striker jumped five meters from the goal and headed in to level the score at 1:1.
In the period that followed, Macedonia took the initiative and constantly attacked in search of the winning goal. We got it in an unusual way, after a diagonal from Trajkov from their own half, directed towards Zenku, the ball unexpectedly bounced a few meters before the outgoing Armenian goalkeeper, Davtyan, transferred it and ended up in the guest net.
With this triumph, Macedonia won the first three points in the qualifiers and looks forward to the next matches with optimism.
