On The Brink Of History, North Macedonia Steps To Qualify For The World Cup Finals For The First Time

Ezgjan Alioski scores the opener to win North Macedonia (Twitter @ezgjanalioski)

JAKARTA - The North Macedonia national team is on the verge of making its first appearance in the 2022 World Cup finals after entering the play-off phase of the European zone qualification.

This was achieved after Macedonia recorded a 3-1 victory when they hosted Iceland in the final match of Group J in the European zone at the Tose Proeski Arena Stadium, Skopje, Sunday local time.

Launching Antara, the victory made Macedonia finish in second place in the final standings of Group J with 18 points and qualify for the European zone play-off phase which is scheduled to take place in March next year.

Full-back Ezgjan Alioski gave Macedonia the lead just seven minutes after the start with his narrow-angle shot completing Aleksandar Trajkovski's through ball.

Macedonia's lead lasted until half-time but was lost nine minutes into the second half when Jon Dagur Thorsteinsson capitalized on a corner to pull home a close-range effort to make Iceland level 1-1.

Macedonia restored their lead in the 65th minute through attacking midfielder Eljaf Elmas who snatched the ball from his own shot which was denied by goalkeeper Elias Olafsson.

Iceland's efforts to bounce back met with a big obstacle as they had to finish the game with just ten men after Isak Bergmann Johannesson received a second yellow card after dropping Elmas.

The unequal situation could be exploited by Elmas who scored his second goal four minutes before the dispersal of normal time to lock Macedonia's 3-1 victory over Iceland.

Iceland is fifth in Group J's final standings with nine points, while Macedonia will await their opponent in the semi-finals of the play-off phase next March. If it can be smooth in the play-off phase, Macedonia will make history in appearing in the World Cup finals after this year making its debut in the main round of Euro 2020.

In another Group J match which took place at the Rheinpark Stadium, Vaduz, Romania beat the host Liechtenstein with a score of 2-0 thanks to goals from Dennis Man and Nicusor Bancu.

Unfortunately, the win was meaningless for Romania, who had to settle for finishing third in Group J with 17 points, just one point behind Macedonia, while Liechtenstein remained bottom of the line with just one point.