National Teams

Malta has a challenging test against North Macedonia to kick-start its Euro Qualification campaign.

Published: 18-03-2023 14:59
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On Thursday, March 23, 2023, in Skopje's National Arena Todor Proeski, Malta will face North Macedonia in its opening encounter of the Euro 2024 Group C Qualifiers. Malta is now in rank 167 in the FIFA Rankings, while North Macedonia is in position 65.  This is a difficult test for Malta as North MAcedonia are most of the time underrated but this is the same team that this is the same team that 11 months ago knocked Italy out of the World Cup final tournament.

Four of the six games were friendly matches whereas two were Euro Championship qualifiers. The first time the two countries clashed was on the 27th of March 1996, on that day North Macedonia triumphed with a minimal score of 1-0. Eight months later, they rematch, with North Macedonia winning 2-0.

North Macedonia won both qualification matches, which were played in 1998, 4-0 and 2-1. In the second encounter, two goals were scored by North Macedonia, and Paul Sixsmith of the Naxxar Lions narrowed the score in the 67th minute. In 2002, they played a friendly match, which North Macedonia won with an impressive score of 5-0. The most recent meeting took place on August 11th, 2010, and resulted in a 1-1 draw. North Macedonia's first goal came from Trickovski, and Michael Mifsud, a Valletta FC player at the time, equalized 10 minutes later.