Recap
LPFM – 33th week, 06.05 (Sunday), time 16.30, City Stadium in Tetovo
Renova and Vardar will meet tomorrow in Tetovo for the 50th time. In 49 confrontations so far, the team from Skopje is the most successful with 21 victories, in front of the ten victorious triumphs. 18 matches between both teams were closed without a winner. Vardar in these duels has scored 63, while Renova scored 43 goals.
In the three meetings this season between Renova and Vardar, the Spaniards have completely dominated, with three wins in all three challenges. In the games held in Skopje, the Rossoneri have defeated at least 2-1 and 1-0, while in Tetovo, the victory of the guests was deep with 5-2.
The main reference of the match will be Josip Barton from Skopje.
Renova’s last five matches:
Pelister – Renova 3:2
Renova – Academy Pandev 2:1
Renova – Skopje 2:0
Sileks – Renova 1:0
Renova – Rabotnicki 2:1
Vardar’s five most recent matches:
Vardar – Skopje 0:1
Sileks – Vardar 0:2
Vardar – Rabotnicki 0:1
Pobeda – Vardar 2:0
Vardar – Spark 2:3
Renova’s key players: Nenad Mishkovski (defender), Fisnik Nuhiu (midfielder), Valmir Nafiu (striker), Vlatko Stojanovski (striker)
Key players at Vardar: Filip Gachevski (goalkeeper), Boban Grncarov (defender), Nikola Gligorov (midfielder), Tigran Barseghyan (striker)
RENOVA
After the recent positive performance at home, Renova did not even make it to the last trip on the trip, where he was defeated by the last team in table-counting, Pelister. On Wednesday, the team from Tetovo was defeated in Bitola with 3-2, which significantly weakened the chances of participating in the Europa League eliminators. At the meeting in question, Mexhit Neziri initially took care of Renova’s advantage, then Lavdrim Skenderi for the draw 2-2, but in the end, the team failed to avoid losing.
Renova is the most formidable team in terms of hosting hosts in Macedonia. The Tetovo team has recorded six wins in the last home matches, with successes defeating teams such as Pelister, Skopje, Pobeda, Rabotnicki, Skopje and Pandev Academy. In these meetings, Renova has scored 12 goals, while only four have suffered.
Since the departure of Vlatko Kostov and the appointment of former player at the helm of Agron Memed, Renova’s team is going through a very good moment and a team struggling for survival has now turned into a team that wants to emerge in Europe. Currently, Renova is fifth and has only two points less than Rabotnicki the fourth, a place that can be played in the Europa League if Spark win the cup final against Pelister.
The Renova team, thanks to the fantastic series in 2018, is the third most successful home team in the season. So far, in 16 games, the team has ten wins, three draws and only three hubs, with 27 goals scored and 21 undergone before their own spectators.
In addition to defeat on Wednesday, Renova lost for a long period even one of the most standard players of the team, defender Stefan Kostov, who had a dangerous collision with an opposing player and for a moment lost consciousness as well. But the judge of the challenge in question, Marjan Goceski, came to the aid.
Unwrought Stefan Kostov, injured, at Renova’s meeting tomorrow will not be able to play even the other defender, Bashkim Velija, who on Wednesday against the Pandev Academy, collected the fifth yellow card this year.
Fisnik Nuhiu, Dejan Cvetanovski and Aleksandar Temelkov, in case of yellow card punishment tomorrow, will not be able to play the next meeting.
Renova’s right-back, Mexhit Neziri, is among the only three players in Macedonia this year, who has played all the games and has spent all the possible minutes on the pitch. Neziri has so far played 32 matches and 2880 minutes the maximum, for which as a defender, has excellent effect with four goals scored and one assist.
With only two foreign players in the ranks, Croatian goalkeeper Matija Kobetic and Brazilian striker Lucas, Renova is the team with the lowest number of foreign players in Macedonia.
Renova did not equalize in any of the last ten meetings, where there are five wins and losses. The final draw is against Sparks 1-1, in the quarterfinals of the cup on March 14.
Vardar
Vardar is still experiencing one of the most difficult moments in recent years. The champions team of the past three seasons, who this season lost the title of Spark, has recently become embarrassed at home on Wednesday, losing the most serious candidate to lead in the second league, the Skopje team, with 0-1.
At the moment the catastrophic Vardar is experiencing many facts, and among them, the team has suffered four losses in the last five games, since the dismissal of Cede Janevski and the appointment at the head of Boban Babunski’s team.
Vardar is with a single win in the last eight meetings, where there are three wins and four defeats.
Year 2018 is disastrous for Vardar, with only three wins in total of 16 official matches. In these games, the red and black team has experienced seven losses and has recorded equal draws. Meanwhile, he has been eliminated from the cup and this season, after three years will close without any trophies.
In eight matches as a guest in 2018, Vardar has a single victory, that of last trip to Kratovo, where Sileks defeated 2-0. In the previous seven games, four draws and three defeats were recorded.
Even though the defeat season, in which four laps before the end Vardari is full 27 points away from the new champion, spark, however, the team with a very weak form, has almost secured the Europa League this summer. We remember that last summer, Vardar had managed to pass the qualifications in this competition and became the first team in the history of Macedonian football that was plucked into the groups of the Europa League.
Vardar is unbeaten at the last five official meetings, where there are four losses and a single victory.
In the last four games of Vardar, there have never been more than two goals from both teams.
Unless he lost the title after three consecutive years, Vardar is no longer the most valuable football team in Macedonia. The Skopje team has a common value of 6.35 million euros, while spark has now almost reached the value of 7 million euros.
Vardar did not know of losses in the last 12 direct meetings against Renova, in which he recorded ten wins and only two draws, both in Tetovo and with identical result of 0-0.
After the absence of players such as Goran Popov, Hovhanes Hambardzumyan, Tigran Barseghyan and Dejan Blaževski, all suspended for the match with Skopje, Vardar completes for this meeting and all these players will be able to play tomorrow.
Darko Velkoski and Filip Stojcevski continue to be suspended by the presidency and will not play in this meeting and until the end of the season for Vardar. In summer, Velkoski will be a free player and he is expected to continue his career in any team outside of Macedonia’s borders.
Jovan Popzlatanov, Dejan Blazevski and Evgeni Novak, in the event of a punishment tomorrow, will not be able to play next week.
City Stadium in Tetovo
Another weekend and another match at the Tetovo City Stadium, where, despite the extremely busy schedule of challenges every Sunday and Wednesday for more than a month, the field continues to be in good shape. The same, this time will offer ideal conditions for the game and given the good form of Renova at home and the quality team of Vardar, a beautiful and interesting match can be expected.
Before the game analysis:
Renova and Vardar will have another interesting match in the 33rd round in the first league of Macedonia. The locals are in extraordinary form at home recently, although almost all the games are held by a very small audience. However, Renova has not won Vardar since December 8, 2014 and in the last 12 meetings, only twice won by a point, with no goalscorer in Tetovo. On the other hand, it is the most recent catastrophic Vardar, with a single victory in the last seven games, or with only three wins in more than 15 matches in 2018. Victory is a far greater imperative for the locals, given the fact that they have a golden opportunity since a season that went to survival, in the end even to go to Europe.