ShkupiRecap
LPFM – 33 th week, 06.05 (Sunday), time 16.30, Stadium: “Zheleznichka” – Shkup
For rivals from the Macedonian capital, Skopje and Shkupi, this will be their seventh match in the last four years, since the former Sloga Jugomagnat was fused into Shkupi. In these six previous so far, Shkupi has two wins, Skopje one, while three matches have been closed without a winner. In these matches, Shkupi has scored four goals, while Skopje is one less, three.
The three matches this year between the two teams have scored the same goal, while both teams have a win. Shkupi won the first match this year at home, while Skopje surprised by winning the last 2-0 match, which Shkupi host was forced to play in Gostivar due to the bad field at its own stadium. Meanwhile, at the only meeting hosted this year with Skopje as host, both teams had failed to score goals.
The main referee of the match will be Alrbim Shaqiri from Struga.
The last five games in Skopje:
Vardar – Skopje 0:1
Skopje – Pelister 4:0
Renova – Skopje 2:0
Skopje – Academy Pandev 0:2
Skopje – Sileks 1:1
The last five matches in Shkupi:
Shkupi- Sileks 1:1
Rabotnicki – Shkupi 1:1
Shkupi – Pobeda 3:1
Spark – Shkupi 2:0
Pandev Academy – Shkupi 1:2
Key players Skopje: Esmin Licina (defender), Dario Desnikj (attacker), Koffi (attacker), Filip Petkovski (attacker)
Key players Shkupi: Suat Zendeli (goalkeeper), Toni Tipuric (defender), Stefan Vujcic (midfielder), Bazhe Ilijoski (attacker)
SKOPJE
Skopje is extremely encouraged before this meeting. All this, thanks to the great and historic victory against Vardar as a Muslim on Wednesday, where the only goal of the match was scored by a player from Togo, Dosseh Koffi. The same one took care of Skopje’s first victory against Vardar after a period of eight years or just the second in history.
Triumph over Vardar on Wednesday, Skopje sparked hopes for survival in the first league. Lupco Markoski’s team, once seen as a second-team squad, is now in the most convenient position, if nothing else, reaches the eighth position, which provides playout matches. At the moment, now two laps, Skopje is in the ninth place, with 31 points, as does the last Pelister with a weaker league goal, while the eighth Pobeda is just one point ahead.
With victory over Pelister last Sunday and against Vardar on Wednesday, Skopje for the first time this season has recorded two consecutive victories. The Colombian team has recently done so in the second league last season.
After the poor performance of the four unbeaten meetings, where there were three defeats, Skopje has turned to the team that surprised everyone in the first eight games of 2018. In the last two meetings, which recorded the same victory, the Skopje team did not suffer no goal.
Although in the first position, Skopje has the fourth best defense in Macedonia, with 36 goals scored in 32 matches.
Compared with the good defense, Skopje’s attack this year is disastrous, with only 19 goals scored in 32 games, or much less than a goal for the match.
In 16 meetings held as host this year, Skopje has registered only two wins and both against Pelister from Bitola. In other meetings, there are also ten complete drawings and only four defeats, with 11 goals scored and even undergone.
With 13 draws in 32 matches, the Skopje team is with the most drawings in Macedonia’s first league this year.
Despite the above-mentioned fact, Skopje did not equalize in any of the four recent championship meetings, which initially had two losses and now two wins. In the last seven games, the team has a single draw
Togoan Koffi is the man of the moment in Skopje, with two goals in the last two games and now he is the team’s top scorer with four goals scored in 14 matches as he developed after his arrival in January. Koffi, at the same time is the player of
only in Skopje with more than two goals this year. As such, Misevski, Djurcinovski, Desnikj, Petkovski and Dzugurdzic have been dismissed in the winter.
In addition to goalkeeper Tigran Kandikhyan missing from the field for a long time, Skopje has no injured player or suspended before this meeting.
In case of punishment tomorrow, for Skopje in the next game there will not be four players to play. They are Hristijan Pecov, Benjamin Demir, Borce Uzhevski and Joel Bopesu.
Skopje’s right-wing defender, Hristijan Pecov, is among the only three players in Macedonia who has played in all matches and possible minutes this season. He has played in 32 meetings and 2880 minutes for which he has recorded two aces.
SHKUPI
Shkupi comes in this game after the 1-1 draw with Sileks, the draw that was defeated, in a challenge in which the locals wished for any win, victory that would bring them in a pole position to win the fourth place, but would also increase the likelihood of third place. In Wednesday’s challenge, 18-year-old Omar Imeri was in the lead, who lasted for a short while until he equaled Sileks.
The draw against Sileks, brought 38th in the 31st game for Shkupi this season. Currently, the team is just four points away from the fourth place, at a time when there is even less competition from rivals, the backward against Pelister, which will be held at the stadium this Wednesday.
The Shkupi team, formerly the triple champion and the quadruple winner of the cup, is seeking the first appearance in Europe after a period of 14 years. Last but not least, he had played in the European Cups in 2014. But, at the same time, the team has still not provided survival, although he has a six-point comforter to the eighth place at a time when four more games to develop.
Shkupi is in a series of three unbeaten matches, in which there are two draws and a win.
Although possessing one of the most experienced defenses in Macedonia, Shkupi has suffered at least one goal in the last 14 official matches in the championship and cup. Finally, goal keeper Suat Zendeli remained untouched on December 3 last year, in a 2-0 win against Vardar.
With seven draws on 16 trips so far, Shkupi , along with Renova are the two teams that have made the most of this season’s match in the matches as a guest.
Shkupi has recorded only two wins in 16 matches as a guest this year, with seven losses. Wins are against Sileks in 2017 and against the Pandev Academy 20 days ago.
Bazhe Ilijoski, who with his arrival in Shkupi , scored 11 goals in 11 games, was unable to play from the first minute to the last three matches and was always caught by the bank. In this meeting, it is expected that he will start from the first minute and be the greatest hope for Zekirija Ramadan’s team goal.
Another player with great experience in Shkupi is also a Croatian with a German passport, Stefan Vujcic. Arrived as sparked by spark in the passage of winter, Vujcic has played only three games so far, all from the bank, while at this meeting, he is also expected to pick up the trainer’s confidence from the first minute.
With nine goals scored in 29 matches, Alen Jasharoski is Shkupi’s top scorer this season and fifth in Macedonia. He has managed to score two goals in the last three games, where he also recorded an assist.
There are no injured players in Shkupi anymore, although most players feel very tired, due to the tight schedule of matches held every three days.
There are no suspended footballers in the stadium for this meeting, and in case of punishment tomorrow, next round will not be able to play Edis Maliqi, Bazhe Ilijoski and Ermedin Adem.
Stadium: “Zheleznichka” – Skopje
This is probably the stadium with the worst conditions in the first Macedonian league, but where Skopje played throughout the season, except for two matches this year, when the same was suspended due to problems in the challenge to Rabotnik. The field is not that it offers ideal conditions for the game, but it is still in good shape, considering the good weather that reigns this spring in Skopje.
Before the game analysis:
It will be a confrontation between the two teams now with different aspirations. Skopje struggles to survive in the first league, where it was a long time away and the team was convincingly weaker, while Shkupi, although not mathematically providing survival, wants to catch the last train that it sends to Europe. The past matches between the two teams have developed a real battle in the field and in three challenges of this season, there are only three goals scored. Skopje wants to continue the excellent series of two successive victories, which is the first such season, while Shkupi, on the other hand, without loss at the last three meetings, initially wants to miss this meeting, and if given the chance to win the game and return the hopes of leaving Europe, though little lost with 1-1 draw against home Sileks on Wednesday.
Possible Formations:
