Recap
LPFM – 34th week, 13.05 (Sunday), time 16.30, City Stadium in Tetovo
Since 2010, both teams will be their seventh match, with the Shkëndija that has won in three games and three other duels that are closed with the draw. In these challenges, Skopje has never won the Shkëndija , which has scored 12 goals, while it has suffered six.
In the three duels of this season, now with the new champion and team that for a long time was convincingly weaker, Shkëndija has won twice. In Skopje with 1-2 and Tetovo with 4-0, while the last duel played in the capital, was closed without goals and winners.
The main referee of the match will be Aleksandar Stavrev from Skopje.
The last five matches of the Shkëndija:
Sileks – Shkëndija 1:1
Shkëndija – Rabotnicki 3:0
Pobeda – Shkëndija 2:1
Akademia Pandev – Shkëndija 2:2
Shkëndija – Shkupi 2:0
The last five games in Skopje:
Skopje – Shkupi 1:1
Vardar – Skopje 0:1
Skopje – Pelister 4:0
Renova – Skopje 2:0
Skopje – Akademija Pandev 0:2
Key players at Shkëndija : Visar Musliu (defender), Armend Alimi (midfielder), Besart Ibraimi (striker), Ferhan Hasani (striker)
Key players at Skopje: Esmin Licina (defender), Dario Desnikj (striker), Koffi (striker), Filip Petkovski (striker)
SHKËNDIJA
Having been champion seven weeks before the closing of the championship, the Shkëndija, after two consecutive failures, returned to the victories and persuaded last Sunday against Sileks in Kratovo, where he managed to win 3-1. The defending champions for the Shkëndija were Ferhan Hasani, Besmir Bojku and Nigerian Vakili, who scored his first goal in the Shkëndija shirt.
The Reds are now in a series of two consecutive victories, against Rabotnic and Sileks, where they scored three goals, while only one suffered from Sileks.
With 91 goals scored so far, Shkëndija is the most efficient team in a league in the history of Macedonia’s first league. Qatip Osman’s team plays almost three goals in the match and in the last three wins, if he scores nine goals, then he will become the first Macedonian team to pass the magical figure of 100 goals in one championship.
Shkëndija is the most “ruthless” host this year in Macedonia, with just two draws and full 14 wins in 16 matches. Only Vardar and Pobeda have managed to win from one point in Tetovo this season, with opponents totaling 43 goals, while scoring only seven goals in 16 appearances.
Shkëndija is in a series of six consecutive victories at home and in these matches, has scored 15 goals in the meantime not undergoing a single goal.
The last goal in a home championship match, Shkëndija has suffered on February 14 this year, in the 1-1 draw against Vardar.
In the last match against Sileks, captain and best Shkëndija player Ferhan Hasani scored his first goal after a period of more than two and a half months. Hasan recently scored a goal against Akademija Pandev on 25 February this year. He, with 20 goals, is the second best scorer in Macedonia, right after his Besart Ibraimi, who has 21.
With 41 goals so far, Besart Ibraimi and Ferhan Hasani have more goals than six teams in Macedonia. Sileks, Akademia Pandev, Renova, Skopje, Pobeda and Pelister have scored fewer goals than these two players.
Shkëndija in this match will be without the services of goalkeeper Bekim Rexhepi, who against Sileks was booked with a red card. I will miss even midfielder Besmir Bojku, who has collected five yellow cards. The best scorer in Macedonia, Besart Ibraimi, who does not feel prepared 100%, and Visar Musliu in the defense of Ennur Totre in midfield, who have complained of injury, are expected to miss.
Shkëndija enjoys full recovery from the defeat of first goalkeeper Kostadin Zahov, who missed the final match while returning to the field last week after Rexhepi was booked with a red card.
SKOPJE
Of the majority also qualified as a team of the second league for a long time, the Skopje team is proving that in football everything is possible and is now more likely to survive in the first league, though not directly but through duel play out or eighth place.
Skopje, in the last championship duel in the local derby against Shkupi, managed to score a worthy point in the survival struggle, equalizing 1-1, with great resignation from captain Filip Petovski, who came in the 89th minute.
Skopje is in an excellent series of three unbeaten matches, where he initially paid for Vardar and Pelister, and finally equaled with Shkupi.
The Skopje team is fantastic on 2018 trips to Macedonia’s first league. In seven matches this year as a guest, Skopje has a single loss, from Renova. Lupco Markovski’s team in these games has scored four wins, while there are two unrivaled draws against Pelister and Akademija Pandev.
Skopje, was the team that overwhelmed the series of 31 fixture spells in which the team had managed to score at least one goal. This happened in the final duel between the two teams, held in early April.
Defenseman Hristijan Pecov continues to be the most standard player in Skopje and the Macedonian championship this year. He has played all 33 possible matches so far, missing from the field for even a minute and passing 2970 minutes there.
Although in eighth position, Skopje has the fourth best defense in Macedonia, with 37 goals scored in 33 matches.
Compared with the good defense, Skopje’s attack this year is disastrous, with only 20 goals scored in 33 games, or much less than one goal for the match.
With 14 draws in 33 matches, the Skopje team is with the most drawings in Macedonia’s first league this year.
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 be no six players to play. They are Captain Filip Petkovski, then Goko Aleksovski, Hristijan Pecov, Benjamin Demir, Borce Uzhevski and Joel Bopesu.
City Stadium in Tetovo
In this stadium, after a period of more than a month, for the first time a match was not played on Wednesday and as a result, the field is now even better. She continues to be the best in Macedonia and to offer the best conditions for football, which enables Shkëndija to give a real spectacle in every match. On the other hand, it is a surprise that although this season’s Shkëndija is already a champion and is shining, the number of spectators in the forums is much lower compared to the previous seasons.
Before the game analysis:
If Shkëndija has secured the championship a few weeks ago, Skopje, with good appearances in 2018, has been back in the game and by a nearly second-team team, it has now been revived and is hoping to survive. Tomorrow, guests will have a very difficult test and in front of themselves they have a mission almost impossible to break at least one point. The locals, having been awarded the championship, failed in the first two matches, but for that, the last two meetings returned the old and with spectacle archived two consecutive victories. The third is expected tomorrow, but it remains to be seen whether Skopje will have the strength to surprise and return from Tetovo with a positive result, which this year only went to Pobeda and Vardar.