North Macedonia coach Blagoja Milevski insists they beat Italy before and ‘can do it again,’ but warns it will be different on the debut of new boss Luciano Spalletti.
The European Championship qualifier kicks off in Skopje on Saturday at 19.45 UK time (18.45 GMT).
This is their first match since the humiliating 7-0 defeat to England on June 19, but they remain in the running for qualification after a 2-1 victory over Malta, even if the 3-2 home loss to Ukraine was damaging.
“When you play against an opponent like Italy, you cannot feel the pressure to get a result, but the desire to win is always there,” said Milevski in his press conference.
“Those previous matches are in the past now and we don’t want to look back on them. Italy arrived in Skopje with a new coach, a high-quality strategist who achieved enormous success winning the Serie A title for Napoli.
“We must be disciplined and tactically focused, as the only way we can do something is to work together as a team. These players did it all together in the past and they can do it again.”
Milevski was also the coach of North Macedonia when they beat Italy 1-0 in Palermo in March 2022, the World Cup play-off semi-final that took the Azzurri out of the tournament in Qatar 2022.
That was the moment that Roberto Mancini’s career with Italy truly went off the rails, although he waited until August 2023 to resign.
“The game in Palermo cannot be considered preparation for this match, because that was completely different. It was a one-off match, against a different coach. This is a brand new team, new energy, a new tournament.”
North Macedonia won that play-off with a counter-attack against the run of play from Aleksandr Trajkovski deep into stoppages, as Italy were pouring forward in a bid to avoid extra time.