North Macedonia Loses 1-3 To Austria, Igor Angleovski Still Proud

JAKARTA - North Macedonia can be proud of its performance in its first debut on the big stage of sport and was beaten by Austria 3-1 in their Euro 2020 Group C opener, coach Igor Angelovski was quoted as saying by Reuters. The Balkan nation of two million people became independent from the former Yugoslavia in 1991 fought hard after their 37-year-old captain, Goran Pandev, pulled back Stefan Lainer's early goal. The Austrian players stepped up the pressure in the last 20 minutes and did well thanks to goals from substitutes Michael Gregoritsch and Marko Arnautovic when the opponent seemed to be running out of energy. There's always a lingering disappointment when you lose a game, but I'm really proud of the players who reached Euro 2020 and they can hold their heads high," Angeloski told a news conference. historic for North Macedonia in the European Cup, but we I must now turn our attention to the two remaining group matches," Angelovski continued at the online press conference. "I am also at a loss for words to describe how I feel about the fantastic atmosphere created by our fans. We played against a team that never stopped running and tried to cover them as much as we could. "This is North Macedonia's third successive defeat to Austria who have beaten them twice in Euro 2020 qualifiers, and Pandev admits they lost muscle. played well for 70 minutes, but Austria are physically much stronger than us and they have an even number of substitutes."

"Playing our first Euro match was an amazing experience and there is no turning back after we conceded an unfortunate third goal in the final moments of the game. "Now we have to rest because we still have a chance. We have another tough game against Ukraine. and we have to try our best to win because we are carefree.” Pandev is also the second oldest player to score in a European Cup after former Austrian striker Ivica Vastic who was 38 when he scored against Poland in Euro 2008. North Macedonia is waiting for Ukraine in Bucharest on Thursday this week and will be hosted by the Netherlands in Amsterdam on June 21.