Aberdeen striker Bojan Miovski looked ahead to North Macedonia’s upcoming Euro 2024 qualifier against Italy, highlighting his team’s focus ‘on the counterattack’.
The Azzurri currently sit third points behind second place Ukraine – who’ve played an extra game – in their European Championship qualifying group, putting them in a tense spot with two matches left to play.
Luciano Spalletti’s side will face off against North Macedonia on November 17 and Ukraine on November 20, two must-win matches if Italy want to avoid having to go through the play-offs, something that conjures painful memories amongst supporters.
Speaking ahead of the game via TMW, Miovski discussed North Macedonia’s game plan for their coming Euro 2024 qualifiers against Italy and England.
“It’s always nice when we play against the best national teams. The next matches against Italy and England will allow us to understand what level we are at, and I think this is the right time. We have no pressure and in the last few games we have achieved excellent results against Italy.
“We will play our game, we have to wait for our opportunities on the counterattack. It’s normal for them to have more ball possession and control of the game, but we will try to surprise them.”
Italy famously lost against North Macedonia in their World Cup qualifying play-off match in Palermo last year, a result that saw the Azzurri miss out on their second consecutive World Cup. In their meeting in September, the match ended all square at 1-1.
I guess if North Macedonia were at home, they could “surprise” Italy by playing the game on a potato field, like they did last time.
I HOPE ITALY CAN WIN THESE TWO GAMES, AS I WOULD LIKE THEN TO TRY AND DEFEND THE TITLE THEY WON
AT WEMBLEY AGAINST ENGLAND.WE HAVE MISSED TWO WORLD CUPS ON THE BOUNCE, AND NOT TO QUALIFY FOR EURO 2024 IN GERMANY WOULD BE A BITTER PILL TO TAKE. FORZA ITALIA.
Potato field indeed – but the conditions were the same for both teams, so …
It’s hardly an excuse.
On top of that, it’s not the first time Italy lost something against Macedonia to call it a 100% exception.
All great nations go through a bad spell. England failed to qualify in 74 and 78 and 94 plus Brazil got humiliated 7-1 at home in a world cup semi final 9 years ago. Plus Germany have been knocked out in the first round at the last 2 world cups and won’t win the European championships next year. My money is on France. Italy will win the world cup in 7 years time in 2030.
Macedonia will park the buss because that is the only way they can win, garbage soccer that sucks to watch