| Nickname(s) | Црвени Лавови Crveni Lavovi (The Red Lions) Црвено-Жолти Crveno-Žolti (Red-Yellows) |
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| Association | Football Federation of Macedonia | ||
| Confederation | UEFA (Europe) | ||
| Head coach | John Toshack | ||
| Captain | Goran Pandev | ||
| Most caps | Goce Sedloski (100) | ||
| Top scorer | Goran Pandev (24) | ||
| Home stadium | Philip II Arena | ||
| FIFA code | MKD | ||
| FIFA ranking | 103 | ||
| Highest FIFA ranking | 46 (October 2008) | ||
| Lowest FIFA ranking | 147 (May 1994) | ||
| Elo ranking | 76 | ||
| Highest Elo ranking | 55 (June 2010) | ||
| Lowest Elo ranking | 104 (April 2003) | ||
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| First international | |||
| Slovenia 1–4 Macedonia (Kranj, Slovenia; 13 October 1993) |
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| Biggest win | |||
| Liechtenstein 1–11 Macedonia (Eschen–Mauren, Liechtenstein; 9 November 1996) |
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| Biggest defeat | |||
| Macedonia 0–5 Belgium (Skopje, Republic of Macedonia; 7 June 1995) |
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The Macedonia national football team is the national football team of the Republic of Macedonia and is controlled by the Football Federation of Macedonia. Due to an ongoing name dispute, it enters international competitions under its country's provisional appellation as "FYR Macedonia". The venue for home games is the Philip II Arena in Skopje, while the manager position is held by John Toshack who was hired on 7 August 2011. Toshack replaced the fired Mirsad Jonuz, who was dismissed on 18 June 2011 due to poor results.
On 12 August 2009, as part of the 100-year anniversary of football in Macedonia, the national team played a friendly match against the current European champions Spain. Star player Goran Pandev scored two goals in the first half to give Macedonia a 2–0 lead before Spain scored three goals in the second half to record the 3–2 victory in front of a record crowd of 30,000 at the renovated Philip II Arena.[1]
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The Macedonian national football team has yet to qualify for a World Cup Finals tournament. In their attempt at qualifying for the 2010 World Cup, they finished fourth in Group 9 with seven points. Surprisingly, due to the closeness of the group throughout the campaign (only five teams in the group) Macedonia remained in contention to qualify until the final group game, which Macedonia lost 2–1 away to Norway.
As with their World Cup campaigns, Macedonia has yet to qualify for a European Championship after three qualifying campaigns. They beat Estonia 1–0 on 16 August 2006 in the first game of the qualification campaign for Euro 2008. They drew 0–0 with England on 7 October 2006, marking one of their best results to date. Another surprising game was a 2–0 win over a strong Croatian side on 17 November 2007.
In 1994, Macedonia became a member of FIFA and UEFA after the break-up of SFR Yugoslavia. The team began its football journey with a 4–1 win against Slovenia in a friendly on 13 October 1993 under coach Andon Dončevski. They went on to win their next two friendlies against Slovenia and Estonia before suffering their first loss against Turkey on 31 August 1994 (before this they lost to Club Atlético Peñarol 0–4 in Montevideo in February 1994). The inaugural Macedonian side featured Darko Pančev, who won the European Champions League with Red Star Belgrade in 1991 and also played for Internazionale in Italy.
The Euro 96 Qualifiers was the first major qualifying tournament that Macedonia participated in as an independent nation and they were grouped with Spain, Denmark, Belgium, Cyprus, and Armenia. In their opening game, which was also their first ever official match, Macedonia was drawn against the reigning European Champions Denmark. The game was played in Skopje on 7 September 1994 and it finished 1–1 with Macedonia leading for most of the game after scoring in the fourth minute. In this qualifying stage, Macedonia suffered one of its worst defeats when they lost 5–0 to Belgium at home on 7 June 1995. They failed to qualify for Euro 96, finishing fourth in the group with seven points.
Macedonia's 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 against Liechtenstein. On 9 November 1996, Macedonia recorded their biggest win ever, an 11–1 thrashing of Liechtenstein. Half of the goals Macedonia scored in the entire campaign were scored in this match alone. Macedonia failed to qualify for the 1998 World Cup in France, finishing fourth in the group on 13 points.
Macedonia's journey to qualify for the Euro 2000 tournament in the Netherlands and Belgium saw them grouped with SR 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 fourth in the group with eight points.
Macedonia's 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, as they finished fourth in the group with seven points.
The Euro 2004 Qualifiers saw Macedonia grouped alongside England, Turkey, Slovakia, and Liechtenstein. Despite Macedonia failing to win its first four games of the campaign, they managed to record one of its most memorable results of its short history. On 16 October 2002, Macedonia played former world champions England in Southampton, which was England's first home game in Southampton in almost 100 years. 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 Macedonia managed to take the lead once again. However, the game ended 2–2 after England managed to score a second equalizer in the second half. Macedonia lost to England 2–1 at home in the return leg, which took place in September 2003. Macedonia's only win of the campaign came on 7 June 2003, when they beat Liechtenstein 3–1 at home. Macedonia did not qualify for the Euro 2004 tournament, which was held in Portugal, finishing fourth in the group with six points, their worst final points tally to date.
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 comfortable 3–0 win at home against Armenia on 18 August 2004. Macedonia did not win another home game for more than three years. On 9 October 2004, Macedonia managed to hold the Netherlands to a surprise 2–2 draw in Skopje in front of a crowd of 17,000 at the Skopje City Stadium, but in their next game, just four 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, 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. Macedonia went on to concede a further eight goals in the next two qualifying games, both against Finland. On 23 August 2005, coach Slobodan Santrac resigned as coach of Macedonia after just five months on 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, Macedonia managed to end the campaign on a high with a 0–0 draw against the Netherlands in Amsterdam. This result meant that Macedonia, with the two draws against the Netherlands, was the only team in the group not to have been defeated by the Netherlands. The Netherlands won 10 of their 12 games in the 2006 World Cup campaign. Macedonia failed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, finishing fifth in the group with nine points.
Following the completion of the 2006 World Cup qualifying tournament, in November 2005, Macedonia took part in a friendly tournament in Iran consisting of four teams, each team from a different continent. The teams were 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 against Paraguay 1–0. Macedonia was the only nation in this friendly tournament not to have qualified for the 2006 World Cup.
On 27 January 2006 in Switzerland, 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 team coach Srečko Katanec was appointed as the head coach and was given a two-year contract. In the lead-up to the beginning of the qualifiers for Euro 2008, Macedonia managed two results against 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. Macedonia opened their Euro 2008 qualifying campaign with a 1–0 win away to Estonia on 16 August 2006. Goce Sedloski scored for Macedonia in the 73rd minute, which meant that Macedonia was the first team to score a goal in the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign. Macedonia hosted England on 6 September 2006 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 that Macedonia failed to score against England. A month later, on 7 October 2006, the two teams met once again in Manchester, where England was held to a 0–0 draw in front of 72,062 people. On 17 October 2007, Macedonia recorded their first win on home soil since August 2004 when they easily defeated Andorra 3–0 in Skopje in an emotional game as it was the day after the death of pop icon Toše Proeski. Macedonia then recorded one of their most impressive wins to date[says who?] when they picked up a 2–0 victory over eventual group winners Croatia on 17 November 2007 causing the biggest upset of Group A and it was a milestone as this was the first win for Macedonia over a side that was ranked in the top 10 of the FIFA rankings. Despite some surprising[says who?] results, Macedonia once again failed to qualify for the Euro 2008 Finals after finishing 5th in the group with 14 points.
On 25 November 2007, just days after Macedonia completed its qualifying campaign for Euro 2008, the groups for European qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup were held in Durban, South Africa where Macedonia was seeded in Pot 4 and grouped along with the Netherlands, Scotland, Norway, and Iceland. Manager Srečko Katanec received a two-year extension on 21 December 2007 which meant he would be under contract through the end of the 2010 World Cup qualifiers. In the lead up to the campaign, Macedonia played three friendlies against Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Poland which all ended in draws. Macedonia opened their campaign with a 1–0 home win against Scotland on 6 September 2008 when Ilčo Naumoski scored on a rebound after a well taken free kick by Goce Sedloski. Following these impressive results, Macedonia moved up 10 places to 46 in the FIFA World Rankings list for October 2008 which was their highest ever position on the rankings list. Srečko Katanec left the team following a 4–0 loss to the Netherlands in Amsterdam in April 2009 for allegedly getting into an argument with star player Goran Pandev. Soon afterwards, the manager of the under-21 squad, Mirsad Jonuz, became the new coach of the Macedonian national football team and was signed until the end of the World Cup qualifying campaign. On 5 September, Macedonia lost 2–0 to Scotland and then suffered another loss to Norway which meant that Macedonia once again did not qualify for the World Cup in South Africa.
On 7 February 2010, Macedonia was placed in Group B for the Euro 2012 qualifiers alongside Russia, Slovakia, Republic of Ireland, Armenia and Andorra. In the lead up to the qualifiers, an under strength Macedonian side played friendlies against Azerbaijan and Romania, winning both of them 3–1 and 1–0 respectively.
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Squad named for the friendly match against Albania on 15 November 2011.
Caps and goals as of 15 November 2011
The following players have also been called up to the Macedonia squad within the last twelve months.
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The following table shows Macedonia's all-time international record, correct as of 15 November 2011.[2]
| Against | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | GF | GA | GD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albania | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 10 | 4 | +6 |
| Andorra | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 1 | +8 |
| Armenia | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 11 | 0 |
| Australia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | −1 |
| Azerbaijan | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 3 | +7 |
| Bahrain | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Belgium | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | −5 |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 8 | 0 |
| Bulgaria | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 | −4 |
| Cameroon | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | −1 |
| Canada | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | +2 |
| China PR | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | −2 |
| Croatia | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 9 | −1 |
| Cyprus | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | +3 |
| Czech Republic | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 9 | −7 |
| Denmark | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | −1 |
| Ecuador | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | +1 |
| Egypt | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| England | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 5 | −2 |
| Estonia | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 3 | +5 |
| Finland | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 11 | −9 |
| Hungary | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | −5 |
| Iceland | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | +2 |
| Iran | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 5 | −1 |
| Republic of Ireland | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 11 | −6 |
| Israel | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 6 | −3 |
| Jamaica | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | +1 |
| South Korea | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | −1 |
| Liechtenstein | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 20 | 4 | +16 |
| Lithuania | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | −3 |
| Luxembourg | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | +3 |
| Malta | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 15 | 2 | +13 |
| Moldova | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Montenegro | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Netherlands | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 8 | −5 |
| Nigeria | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Norway | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | −1 |
| Oman | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | −2 |
| Paraguay | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | −1 |
| Poland | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | −3 |
| Portugal | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | −1 |
| Qatar | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Romania | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 11 | −6 |
| Russia | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 7 | −6 |
| Saudi Arabia | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Scotland | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | −1 |
| Serbia | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Serbia and Montenegro | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 9 | −5 |
| Slovakia | 6 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 12 | −10 |
| Slovenia | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | +5 |
| Spain | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 8 | −6 |
| Sweden | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | −2 |
| Turkey | 7 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 14 | −5 |
| Ukraine | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | +1 |
| United States | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 165 | 47 | 45 | 73 | 193 | 227 | −34 |
Most appearances
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Top goalscorers
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