Euro 2024 Qualification Results: Draw Against North Macedonia, England Confirmed As Group Winner

JAKARTA - England achieved a 1-1 draw when they visited North Macedonia's headquarters in the final match of Group C Euro 2024 Qualification at Tose Proeski Arena, Tuesday, 21 November 2023 early morning WIB.

The Three Lions, who have confirmed their progress to the Euro 2024 finals, continue to appear dominant. In fact, they no longer need to collect points considering that no one can move them from the top of the standings.

Just look at the ball possession sector where England is ahead with 75 percent. Even so, they could only score two shots on goal from 12 attempts.

One of the golden opportunities was born when the match had just entered the 14th minute. Declan Rice fired a hard kick, but it still hit the goalpost.

Instead of scoring the opening goal, England conceded first. In the 39th minute, they were awarded a penalty after Rico Lewis fouled Bojan Miovski.

This violation became a debate before the referee finally confirmed the penalty after reviewing the video assistant referee (VAR).

In fact, Enis Bardhi's penalty kick was saved by Jordan Pickford. However, the goalkeeper failed to anticipate Bardhi's rebound, so the hosts took a 1-0 lead in the 41st minute. North Macedonia was leading 1-0 until the break.

Trailing by one goal in the second half, England immediately took the initiative to control the game. Sure enough, after just two minutes they were able to equalize through Jack Grealish. Unfortunately, the goal was disallowed by VAR because he had already been caught offside.

Three Lions immediately changed strategy. The presence of Ollie Watkins who was installed as a starter did not have a significant impact. As a result, Gareth Soughgate, the England coach, brought in their mainstay, Harry Kane, when the match had been running for almost an hour.

This change turned out to be sweet. Exactly in the 59th minute England equalized the score. Kane was the actor in Jani Atanasov's own goal for the hosts.

Starting from Phil Foden's corner kick which leads to Kane. However, Atanasov's anticipation of Kane resulted in a blunder and he found the net himself.

The 1-1 score lasted until the match was over. This result meant that England maintained the top of Group C of the Euro 2024 Qualification standings with a collection of 20 points.

England qualified for the Euro 2024 finals accompanied by Italy as group runners-up. Meanwhile, North Macedonia had to settle for fourth place with eight points.

Lineup

North Macedonia: Stole Dimitrievski; Jovan Manev, Visar Musliu, Nikola Serafimov; Bojan Dimovski (Stefan Askovski 86'), Enis Bardhi, Jani Atanasov (Agon Elezi 91'), Isnik Alimi (Tihomir Kostadinov 75'), Ezgjan Alioski; Eljif Elmas, Bojan Miovski (Milan Ristovski 75')

England: Jordan Pickford; Kyle Walker, Marc Guehi, Harry Maguire, Rico Lewis; Declan Rice, Trent Alexander-Arnold (Kalvin Phillips 84'); Bukayo Saka (Cole Palmer 84'), Phil Foden, Jack Grealish (Marcus Rashford 84'); Ollie Watkins (Harry Kane 58')