North Macedonia will look to go top of their World Cup qualifying group on Sunday evening as they welcome Liechtenstein to Skopje.
Blagoja Milevski’s hosts opened up their World Cup qualifying campaign with a routine 0-3 victory in Vaduz against Liechtenstein, before playing out consecutive 1-1 draws at home to the top two seeds in the group, Belgium and Wales.
The Risovi then ground out a 0-1 victory in Kazakhstan, with that result leaving them in second position in Group J, two points behind Wales and one ahead of Belgium.
It’s been more of the same for Liechtenstein in their World Cup qualifying campaign, as they have lost each of their opening four qualifiers by an aggregate score of 14-0.
The latest of those was a 0-6 defeat at home to Belgium on Thursday night on an evening where our man SlipsTips landed a couple of nice winners.
How the bookies view it: North Macedonia clear favourites
As expected, North Macedonia come into this clash as clear favourites, with BoyleSports pricing a home win at an unbackable 1/20.
A shock victory for the visitors is a massive 40/1 with the same firm, whilst the draw is an unfancied 12/1.
Head to head: Risovi dominance
These two nations have faced each other 12 times since 1996, with North Macedonia winning 11 of them, scoring 45 and conceding just five times.
The only time Liechtenstein avoided defeat in this fixture came in a 1-1 draw in 2002 in a European championship qualifier.
Players to watch: Trajkovski to find the target?
Aleksandar Trajkovski has scored in each of North Macedonia’s previous two internationals, including the winner at Kazakhstan in their last qualifier.
The ex-Hajduk Split forward also scored in the reverse fixture in Vaduz back in March, and is an appealing 1/1 at PaddyPower to find the target once again for the Risovi.
Predicted line-ups:
North Macedonia appear to be at full strength, with new Rangers forward Bojan Miovski expected to lead the line.
Liechtenstein are expected to name a similar starting 11 to the one that was thrashed 0-6 at home to Belgium on Thursday night, with Nicolas Hasler captaining the side.
North Macedonia: Dimitrievski, Despotovski, Zajkov, Musliu, Alioski, Churlinov, Elmas, Kostadinov, Bardhi, Miovski, Trajkovski
Liechtenstein: Buchel, Malin, Traber, Hofer, Wolfinger, Luchinger, Hasler, Sele, Goppel, Notaro, Saglam
Anything else catch the eye?
With North Macedonia priced as short as they are, I need to be a bit more inventive when coming up with selections here.
North Macedonia have won all five previous meetings at home to Liechtenstein, with Over 3.5 Goals landing in each of their last four (3-1, 4-0, 4-1 & 5-0), and a repeat here pays an appealing 20/23 at BoyleSports.
In Liechtenstein’s 0-6 thrashing at home to Belgium on Thursday night, five of the goals came in the second half, and the 20/23 on offer for most goals after the interval also appeals.
GambleAware