Republic of Macedonia national football team
| Nickname(s) | Црвени Лавови The Red Lions Црвено-Жолти Red-Yellows |
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| Association | Football Federation of Macedonia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Confederation | UEFA (Europe) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Head coach |  Srečko Katanec (2006-) |
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| Captain | Goce Sedloski | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Most caps | Goce Sedloski (88) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top scorer | Gjorgji Hristov (16) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Home stadium | Skopje City Stadium | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| FIFA code | MKD | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| FIFA ranking | 50 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Highest FIFA ranking | 46 (October 2008) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lowest FIFA ranking | 147 (May 1994) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Elo ranking | 73 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| First international | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Slovenia 1 - 4 FYR Macedonia  (Kranj, Slovenia; October 13, 1993) |
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| Biggest win | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Liechtenstein 1- 11 FYR Macedonia  (Eschen-Mauren, Liechtenstein; November 9, 1996) |
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| Biggest defeat | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
FYR Macedonia 0 - 5 Belgium  (Skopje, Republic of Macedonia; June 7, 1995) |
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The Republic of Macedonia national football team is the national football team of the Republic of Macedonia and is controlled by the Football Federation of Macedonia. They compete in FIFA and UEFA tournaments as the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, often abbreviated to FYR Macedonia.[1][2] They usually play their home games at Skopje City Stadium.
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World Cup record
The FYR Macedonia national football team has yet to qualify for a World Cup Finals tournament. In their most recent attempt, they finished 5th in Group 1 with 9 points and only 2 wins from 12 games. Their campaign ended on a positive note with a surprise 0-0 draw in Amsterdam against the Netherlands on 12 October 2005.
European Championship record
As with their World Cup campaigns, FYR Macedonia are yet to qualify for a European Championship after 3 qualifying campaigns. They beat Estonia 1:0 on August 16, 2006 in the first game of the qualification campaign for the 2008 European Football Championship. They drew 0-0 with England on October 7, 2006, marking one of their best results to date. Another surprising game was a 2-0 win over a strong Croatian side on November 17, 2007.
Memorable players
- Zoran Boškovski
- Darko Pančev
- Čedomir Janevski
- Igor Nikolovski
- Toni Savevski
- Vasil Ringov
- Artim Šakiri
- Toni Micevski
- Saša Ćirić
- Georgi Hristov
- Goce Sedloski
- Goran Pandev
- Ilija Najdoski
Coaching history
- Andon Dončevski (1993-1995)
- Gjoko Hadžievski (1996-1999)
- Dragan Kanatlarovski (1999-2001)
- Gjore Jovanovski (2001-2002)
- Nikola Ilievski (2002-2003) [3]
- Dragan Kanatlarovski (2003-2005)
Slobodan Santrač (2005)- Boban Babunski (2005-2006)
- Srečko Katanec (2006-)
History
The beginning
In 1994, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia became a member of FIFA and UEFA after the break-up of Yugoslavia.
The team began its football life with a 4-1 win against Slovenia in a friendly on 13 October 1993 under coach Andon Dončevski. They went on to win its next 2 friendlies against Slovenia and Estonia before suffering its first ever loss, a 2-0 loss at home to Turkey on 31 August 1994 (before this they lost to Peñarol 0-4 in Montevideo on February 1994).The team originally was founded down a short alley by the village of menai bridge as a school child Sion Creegan famoulsly kicked a can at a shmo. The inaugural Macedonian side featured Darko Pancev, who won the European Champions League for Red Star Belgrade in 1991 and also played for Internazionale in Italy.
Euro 96 Qualifiers
The Euro 96 Qualifiers was the first qualifying tournament that FYR Macedonia took part in, in which they were grouped with Spain, Denmark, Belgium, Cyprus and Armenia. In their opening game, which was also their first ever official match, FYR Macedonia was drawn against the reigning European Champions, Denmark. The game was played in Skopje on 7 September 1994 and finished 1-1 with FYR Macedonia leading for most of the game after scoring in the 4th minute. In this qualifying stage, FYR Macedonia suffered one of its worst defeats, a 5-0 loss to Belgium at home on 7 June 1995. They failed to qualify for Euro 96, finishing 4th in the group on 7 points.
1998 World Cup Qualifiers
FYR Macedonia first qualifying attempt for the World Cup saw them grouped with Romania, Ireland, Lithuania, Iceland and Liechtenstein. The tournament began on 24 April 1996 with a 3-0 win at home to Liechtenstein. On 9 November 1996, FYR Macedonia recorded their biggest ever win, an 11-1 thrashing of Liechtenstein. Half of all the goals FYR Macedonia scored in the whole campaign were scored in this match alone. FYR Macedonia failed to qualify for the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France, finishing 4th in the group on 13 points.
Euro 2000 Qualifiers
FYR Macedonia campaign to qualify for the Euro 2000 tournament in Netherlands and Belgium saw them grouped with Yugoslavia, Ireland, Croatia and Malta. They once again opened their qualifying campaign with a win after beating Malta 4-0 at home on 6 September 1998. However, they failed to qualify again, finishing 4th in the group on 8 points.
2002 World Cup Qualifiers
FYR Macedonia 2002 World Cup qualifying campaign saw them grouped with Sweden, Turkey, Slovakia, Moldova and Azerbaijan. They were unsuccessful in their opening match, going down to Slovakia 2-0 in Slovakia on 3 September 2000. The Macedonians once again failed to qualify for the 2002 World Cup which was held in Japan and South Korea, once again finishing 4th in the group on 7 points.
Euro 2004 Qualifiers
The Euro 2004 Qualifiers saw FYR Macedonia grouped alongside England, Turkey, Slovakia and Liechtenstein. Despite FYR Macedonia failing to win its first 4 games of the campaign, they managed to record one of its most memorable results of its short history. On 16 October 2002, FYR Macedonia played former world champions England in Southampton, which was England's first home game in Southampton in almost 100 years. FYR Macedonia grabbed the lead early in the first half after Artim Sakiri scored directly from a corner kick, leaving English goalkeeper David Seaman stunned. England soon leveled the game, but not before FYR Macedonia managed to get in the lead once again. However, the game ended 2-2 after England managed to score a second equaliser in the second half. FYR Macedonia lost to England 2-1 at home in the return leg which took place in September 2003. Macedonian only win of the campaign came on 7 June 2003, when they beat Liechtenstein 3-1 at home. FYR Macedonia did not qualify for the Euro 2004 tournament which was held in Portugal, finishing 4th on 6 points, their worst final points tally to date.
2006 World Cup Qualifiers
FYR Macedonia was drawn in Group 1 and was grouped with the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Romania, Finland, Armenia and Andorra. They managed to open their campaign with a 3-0 win at home to Armenia on 18 August 2004. FYR Macedonia would not win another home game for more than 3 years. On 9 October 2004, FYR Macedonia managed to hold European giants the Netherlands to a surprise 2-2 draw in Skopje in front of a crowd of 17,000 at the Gradski Stadium, but in their next game, just 4 days later, they suffered one of its most embarrassing defeats, a 1-0 loss away to Andorra, one of the world's weakest teams. Also in this tournaments, FYR Macedonia set a new team record for most goals conceded in a game when they lost 6-1 away to Czech Republic on 8 June 2005. FYR Macedonia went on to concede a further 8 goals in the next 2 qualifiers, both were against Finland. On 23 August 2005, coach Slobodan Santrac resigned as coach of FYR Macedonia after just 5 months into the job due to personal problems, with former player Boban Babunski temporarily taking over as coach. The resignation came just days after they were beaten 3-0 by Finland in Skopje. Despite their poor performance during the 2006 World Cup qualifying campaign, FYR Macedonia managed to end the campaign on a high, with a 0-0 draw against the Netherlands in Amsterdam. This result meant that FYR Macedonia, with the 2 draws against the Netherlands, was the only team in the group not to have been twice defeated by group winners the Netherlands. The Netherlands won 10 of their 12 games in the 2006 World Cup campaign. FYR Macedonia failed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, finishing 5th in the group on 9 points.
Following the completion of the 2006 World Cup Qualifying tournament, in November 2005, FYR Macedonia took part in a friendly tournament in Iran consisting of 4 teams, each team from a different continent. The teams were FYR Macedonia, Iran, Paraguay and Togo. In their opening match, they won 2-1 against host nation Iran, booking a spot in the final against Paraguay. They lost the final match against Paraguay 1-0. FYR Macedonia was the only nation in this friendly tournament not to have qualified for the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
Euro 2008 Qualifiers
On 27 January 2006 in Switzerland, FYR Macedonia was placed in Group E for the Euro 2008 qualifiers alongside England, Croatia, Russia, Israel, Estonia and Andorra.
On 17 February 2006, Former Slovenian national coach Srečko Katanec was appointed as the head coach under a 2 year contract.
In the lead up to the beginning of the qualifiers for Euro 2008, FYR Macedonia managed 2 impressive results against quality sides in friendly matches. They beat Ecuador 2-1 in Madrid, their first ever win against a South American side, and a week later, followed that up with a 1-0 win against Turkey.
On 16 August 2006, FYR Macedonia opened their Euro 2008 qualifying campaign with a 1-0 win away against Estonia. Goce Sedloski scored for FYR Macedonia in the 73rd minute. Sedloski's milestone goal meant that the Macedonia was the first team to score a goal in the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign.
On 6 September 2006,FYR Macedonia hosted England in their second game of the qualifiers. England went on to win 1-0 after Peter Crouch scored for the away side in the 46th minute. This was the first time they failed to score against England. A month later, on 7 October, the 2 teams met once again in Manchester. They surprisingly held England to a 0-0 draw in front of 72,062 people.
On 17 October 2007, FYR Macedonia beat Andorra 3-0 in Skopje, giving them their first win on home soil since August 2004
On 17 November 2007,FYR Macedonia caused the biggest upset of the group A, 2-0 win in Skopje over eventual group winners Croatia, who suffered their first loss since the 2006 FIFA World Cup. The win was also Croatia's only loss of their campaign, as well as Macedonian first ever win over a side ranked in the Top 10 in the FIFA Rankings.
FYR Macedonia failed to qualify to the Euro 2008 Finals after finishing 5th on 14 points, despite their highest points accumulation for a qualifiers tournament.
2010 World Cup Qualifiers
On 25 November 2007, just days after FYR Macedonia completed its qualifying campaign for Euro 2008, The groups for European qualifiers for the 2010 FIFA World Cup were allocated in Durban, South Africa. FYR Macedonia was seeded in Pot 4 and was grouped along with the Netherlands, Scotland, Norway and Iceland.
On 21 December 2007, coach Srečko Katanec agreed to a 2 year contract extension which would see him coach FYR Macedonia through the 2010 World Cup Qualifiers.
In the lead up to the campaign, FYR Macedonia played 3 friendlies against Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Poland throughout 2008, all of which ended in draws.
On 6th September 2008, FYR Macedonia opened its campaign with a 1-0 win against Scotland at home. Ilčo Naumoski scored for the Macedonians in the 5th minute off a Goce Sedloski free-kick.
Following these impressive results, FYR Macedonia moved up 10 places to #46 on the FIFA World Rankings list for October 2008, their highest ever position on the rankings list.
In their most recent qualifier, FYR Macedonia lost 1-0 to Iceland in Reykjavík on 15th October 2008.
Upcoming matches
- 19 November 2008 - Montenegro v FYR Macedonia - Podgorica, Montenegro - Friendly
- 1 April 2009 - Netherlands v FYR Macedonia - Netherlands - FIFA World Cup Qualifier
- 6 June 2009 -FYR Macedonia v Norway - Skopje, Republic of Macedonia - FIFA World Cup Qualifier
- 10 June 2009 -FYR Macedonia v Iceland - Skopje, Republic of Macedonia - FIFA World Cup Qualifier
- 5 September 2009 - Scotland v FYR Macedonia - Scotland - FIFA World Cup Qualifier
- 9 September 2009 - Norway v FYR Macedonia - Norway - FIFA World Cup Qualifier
2010 FIFA World Cup qualification
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Current Squad
Squad named for World Cup 2010 Qualifiers against Iceland on October 15, 2008.
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Recent call-ups
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^ Injured
^^ Suspended
Notes
External links
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International football
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