World Cup qual - Macedonia pile pressure on Scots

Eurosport - Wed, 10 Jun 22:37:00 2009

Macedonia's 2-0 victory over Iceland kept the pressure on Scotland as they drew level on points in World Cup qualifying Group Nine, but the Scots had a boost as the Netherlands beat Norway.

FOOTBALL Macedonia's Goran Popov challenges Iceland's Ragnar Sigurdsson (L) during their 2010 Fifa World Cup qualifying match at the Skopje city stadium June 10, 2009. - 0

Macedonia are now third with seven points from six matches, level with Scotland who have a game in hand and a superior goal difference.

But the Norwegians, who needed a win to draw within a point of Scotland, are now rooted to the bottom of the group with three points from five matches while Iceland are fourth with four points from seven games.

In Skopje goals from Aco Stojkov and his substitute Filip Ivanovski gave Macedonia a comfortable home victory, keeping the Balkan country in contention for a place in South Africa.

Midfielder Stojkov fired the Macedonians into an early lead with a neat header after a surging run and cross by Filip Despotovski.

Ilco Naumoski missed two good chances for Macedonia before Ivanovski, who came on for Stojkov shortly after the hour, sealed their win in the 85th minute with a close range effort.

In Rotterdam Andre Ooijer and Arjen Robben scored to earn the Netherlands a 2-0 home victory over Norway.

The Netherlands, who booked their place in next year's finals on Saturday, went close to opening the scoring in the first minute and had to wait till the 33rd before Ooijer nodded in a free kick from Rafael van der Vaart.

Norway's only chance came just after halftime but Maarten Stekelenburg saved a shot from Morten Gamst Pedersen and a minute later Robben settled the match with a tight angled shot after good work from Van der Vaart and Robin van Persie.

Europe's nine groups winners qualify automatically for the World Cup while the eight best runners-up meet in a two-leg play-off for another four berths.

Reuters

Comment 11 - 30 of 30

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  1. What's a Macedonia??? do you eat it or smoke it,or­ @#$% it?? is it like a donar kabob or sumthing,
    The­ tartan Army will own!!!

    From Time Traveller, on Tue 30 Jun 3:21AM

  2. Napred Makedonijo!!

    From BozinT, on Thu 11 Jun 11:35AM

  3. It's hard to imagine Macedonia beating Scotland­ away but if we drew with ENgland 2-2 away and we were­ in the lead 2 times, then why can't we beat the­ Scots who are not as strong as England? We must have­ optimism. This group is as weak as we could've­ wished, the Dutch were obviously gonna win it but for 2­ place it may be tough. Let's hope we at least draw­ with Scotland and beat Norway and the Scots lose their­ last game.

    From martin.mitevski26, on Thu 11 Jun 9:52AM

  4. Macedonia has every chance of beating scotland and­ norway away. The norwegians pulled a draw, but­ Macedonia has a solid team and I think they can make it­ to the world cup

    From zivko_kotevski, on Thu 11 Jun 9:34AM

  5. Youve got to laugh... We Scots know we are a second­ rate team and we dont take ourselves too seriously. The­ difference is that the English think they will win­ every tournament they enter, and they fail every time. ­ I dont hate the English , some of my best friends are­ English, I love the Premier league (although not alot­ of English players in there eh!). I hate the English­ press who openly anounce that England are going to win­ the World cup every 4 years.The arrogance is­ astounding, and disrespects the other teams, but its­ funny to see the glorious failure every 4 years. Good­ luck to you, if Scotland dont make it , at least we­ will have a laugh watching the English penalties go­ into orbit over the bar.

    From mrovrebo, on Thu 11 Jun 9:32AM

  6. am scotland throughand through how people can state the­ obvious of course we are second rate we are a small­ nation and makingthe finals would be great achievement­ this group gives us a good chance but the worrying­ thing now is that one team in second with the poorest­ points tally dont get in play offs and that might be us­ we need to winat leat two of three games left we might­ scrape past norway away and macedonia at home as­ against iceland we were embarrasing

    From john, on Thu 11 Jun 9:09AM

  7. SteveE. Thanks for your comment. I have always­ supported Scotland when they get to a final - sadly not­ for a while - or when they play foreign opposition, and­ like to see all the "Home Countries" do well­ (including Ireland) and don't understand the­ irrational hatred from both sides. It's pathetic­ really.

    From ac.ely, on Thu 11 Jun 8:37AM

  8. Robert H - Post 25. You are deluded man, absolutely­ deluded. We know that we are @#$% the difference­ between us and the English fans is that we can lose­ (quite often we do) but still enjoy the occaison and­ have a party.
    England beat Andorra and yet again we­ hear the talk fo how they will now win the world cup.­ Didn't we get this all so many times before? I­ personally would be quite happy if England did win it­ as I am not one of those Scots with a biggited head­ shoved all the way up his ar*se. However I will jump to­ our defence when morons make misguided comments.
    You­ have shown that you know abslutely nothing -­ congratulations, you are the front runner for d.o.r.k­ of the day

    From StevE, on Thu 11 Jun 8:07AM
  9. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    Scotland are, and always have been, a second-rate­ outfit at best; even if they reach the finals they will­ be eliminated in the early stages as ever. The only­ people who apparently can't see this clear fact are­ the Scots themselves....

    From mirandola, on Thu 11 Jun 6:31AM

  10. Haha Listen i gotta agree maybe the Scots have a better­ team but dont forget the ball is round anyting could­ happen, just ask the English national team they also­ didnt know where REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA was but after­ the first game where we drew 2-2 in Southampton they­ quickly opened up up the maps and had a good look 4­ themselves :))))
    So just wait and see what happens­ first we mite not b the best but we can play with any1­ at any given day...
    LONG LIVE MACEDONIA.
    BTW my friend­ Marios.K we got a great surprise 4 u in Poland 4 the­ eurobasket cya there!!!!!

    From Aleksandar, on Thu 11 Jun 5:17AM
  11. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    Wannn know more 18 only H-o-T gi-rls, just join the­ club T all connect co m where you can find more­ fun.....

    From katelee256, on Thu 11 Jun 4:33AM

  12. what a laugh listen Scotland Should win against­ macadonia if we dont then we should not be competing in­ europe let alone the world cup !! ffs we have have a­ really good squad and i really dont think we should­ worry

    From colin.john18, on Thu 11 Jun 3:01AM

  13. Ah sorry My grandad always said never mix politics and­ sport with food.If you do get some indegestion tabs or­ if it affects you the other way imodium is the one.HMFC

    From brian d, on Thu 11 Jun 3:00AM

  14. So where did Kebabs originate from .and Macedonia was­ mixed veg at my primary school many moons ago. HMFC

    From brian d, on Thu 11 Jun 2:58AM

  15. To my dear friend Marios K the Greek Gaylord. Who gives­ u (Greeks) the right to tell us how should or shouldnt­ we call our country? Do u call urselves Macedonians? I­ dont think so. And why dont u? Since ur so proud of ur­ "Macedonian heritage"... I can call my coutry­ Mars if i want to and i could be a Martian. Its not ur­ fcking bussines. And where was Greece 50 years ago when­ Macedonia was part of the former Yugoslavia to whine­ how we have stolen ur history? U kept ur mouths shut­ back then cause Yugoslavia was big and mighty incompre­ to u little Greek faggots. So shut the @#$% up and­ comment about the soccer games .. or even better-just­ shut the @#$% up.
    As to the Scot that didnt know where­ Macedonia is, what better replay than qouting his own­ compatriot "Macedonia beat us at their own­ ground". Isnt it kinda patethic losing to a­ country that u dont even know where is located? Im sure­ many of u Scots had the same problem as u do prior the­ game in Skopje (f.y.i. its the capital of Macedonia)­ but googled us out after it. I hope u'll do the­ same after we pwn ur @#$% in front of ur home crowd!­ LONG LIVE MACEDONIA!!!

    From Dalton, on Thu 11 Jun 2:58AM

  16. Oh dear,what is football coming to? As my old grandad­ said,you should never mix politics with sport. I­ don't care who or what Macedonia is or was,they are­ a football team (like Andorra!)and we have to beat them­ (Scotland,that is.)

    From limsharp, on Thu 11 Jun 2:43AM

  17. I`m Macedonian,but lets be real Scotland has all in­ their hands,plus Macedonia doesnt have strong team to­ beat Scotland we lack almost in every area especially­ midfield ........the only positive thing about this­ group is that we tend to play good against teams from­ the island ,but generally the quality is not there to­ make a surprise

    From Nikola, on Thu 11 Jun 1:27AM

  18. macedonia is the BEST!!!!!!

    From Vlatko T, on Thu 11 Jun 1:25AM

  19. No pressure for Scotland

    From keres323, on Thu 11 Jun 1:25AM

  20. Good luck Scotland.

    From ANDREW S, on Thu 11 Jun 1:15AM
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