The Macedonian A national team played to a draw, 1:1, against Wales in the second round of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. After a great fight, Blagoja Milevski's team took the lead in the 91st minute through Bojan Miovski, but before the very end, in the 96th minute, the Welsh saved themselves from defeat in Skopje.
In the first half, Milevski's players did not take too many risks and Stole Dimitrievski was out of work in the first half. However, things changed at the end of the first half. The Welsh team had the most mature chance in the 33rd minute, when Thomas' shot from a promising position ended up in Dimitrievski and our defense managed to clear. In the 37th minute, the same player hit the crossbar from a dead angle, and then Dimitrievski tamed Sheehan's shot.
The first half ended with our most ripe opportunity. Bardi took a corner from the right, Alioski caught a volley with his left foot, but it hit over the Welsh goal. The start of the second half did not bring much excitement, we again saw a tactical battle and outsmarting of Milevski and Bellamy. Until the substitutions, when Čurlinov and Atanasov entered the field for Macedonia. It was the representative winger who had the best chance of the match, when in the 65th minute he hit a volley, but goalkeeper Darlow read his attempt.
On the other side, Wales could have taken the lead after a misunderstanding between Dimitrievski and Serafimov, when the ball bounced to Johnson in the 73rd minute, but Visar Musliu was on the goal line and cleared it. Before the end, the most experienced player Allen made a mistake, and Bojan Miovski brought the lead in the 91st minute. And then, when everyone was waiting for the end, a shocking moment followed for us, because about ten seconds before the end, Wales came to a draw with a goal by Brooks.
In the next round of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, Macedonia will host the first favorite in the group, Belgium. The match will be played in June, followed by an away match against Kazakhstan.
