The Macedonia national football team ended its October Nations League campaign with another defeat. Our national team lost 3-0 to Switzerland in Lucerne and remained without points after four matches in this cycle.
The result may be too harsh considering the course of the match, but the Swiss were maximally efficient in punishing Macedonia's mistakes. Rieder, Manzambi and Ndoye scored for the home team, which did not shine but knew how to exploit every mistake we made.
Macedonia started the match well and did not look inferior against the favourites. The first threat came from Switzerland in the 10th minute, when Ndoye shot from the edge of the penalty area, but Dimitrievski saved comfortably.
Our team responded in the 20th minute. Andrej Stojchevski found himself in a good position and headed towards goal, but the ball went over Mvogo's goal.
Switzerland threatened again through Sierro in the 28th minute, but his long-range effort missed the target. Two minutes later, Rieder had an ideal chance to score, but Dimitrievski denied him.
When Macedonia were controlling the tempo and looked capable of going into the break with a positive result, the fateful 43rd minute followed.
Alioski played the ball back towards Musliu, but our defence failed to react in time. Rieder took advantage of the gift, won the ball and confidently beat Dimitrievski to make it 1-0.
Yakin reacted immediately at the start of the second half and introduced Manzambi and Jashari. With fresh players in the team, Switzerland gained greater control, while Macedonia found it increasingly difficult to get near the opposition goal.
In the 50th minute, Elvedi threatened, but Dimitrievski saved. Five minutes later, Jashari had the opportunity to play Amdouni in, but the move broke down due to a poor pass.
Sedloski tried to change something after an hour of play by bringing on Gashtarov and Omeragic. However, Macedonia failed to get back into the match.
The second goal arrived in the 74th minute. Manzambi opted for a shot from around 25 metres, and Dimitrievski failed to deal with it properly. The ball ended up in the net to make it 2-0.
The final score was set in the 81st minute. Gashtarov made an unnecessary mistake in front of our penalty area and lost the ball, while Ndoye ruthlessly punished it to make it 3-0.
In Lucerne, it was once again shown that against opponents of this calibre, even the smallest mistakes can be very costly.
SWITZERLAND – MACEDONIA 3-0 (1-0)
Thermoplan Arena, Lucerne. Attendance: 15,730. Referee: Edgards Maicevs (Latvia). Scorers: Rieder 43’, Manzambi 74’, Ndoye 81’ (Switzerland). Yellow cards: Elezi (Macedonia)
SWITZERLAND: Mvogo, Brignoli, Elvedi, Akanji, Rodriguez (70’ Atekaame), Freuler, Sierro (46’ Jashari), Sow (46’ Manzambi), Rieder, Amdouni (70’ Botteli), Ndoye (86’ Sanchez).
Head coach: Murat Yakin
MACEDONIA: Dimitrievski, Stojchevski, Musliu, Zajkov, Alioski, Elezi (70’ Kostadinov), Bardhi (82’ Stankovski), Elmas, Doriev (59’ Gashtarov), Mitrovski (82’ Miovski), Rastoder (59’ Omeragic).
Head coach: Goce Sedloski
