Italy, Scotland, Saudi-based players named in North Macedonia squad for Malta qualifier

North Macedonia to face Malta in upcoming Euro 2024 qualifier

A squad of 29 players has been selected by coach Blagoja Milevski as North Macedonia gear up their preparations towards their upcoming Euro 2024 qualifiers including an away tie in Malta.

Milevski’s selection face Malta on September 12 at the National Stadium in Ta’ Qali, three days after hosting Italy on Luciano Spalletti’s in charge of the European champions.

Former Spalletti player Elif Elmas, who is on the books of the Italian champions, is included in the provisional squad together with another Italy-based player in Ilija Nestorovski who plies his trade at Ascoli.

Elmas was one of the two scorers for North Macedonia in the first round game against Malta when they won 2-1 in Skopje.

That resulted in their only victory in this qualifying campaign so far after a 3-2 comeback defeat against Ukraine and 7-0 drubbing at the hands of England at Old Trafford.

Other key players for North Macedonia picked up by their coach are former Serie A and Premier League player Ezgjan Alioski, now at Saudi Arabia’s Al-Ahli and Darko Velkovski (48 caps) who plays for Steven Gerrard’s Al-Ettifaq, also in the Saudi Premier League.

Two Scotland-based players were selected as well in uncapped Davor Zdravkovski, a Motherwell midfielder and Aberdeen forward Bojan Miovski who scored in their 3-1 home defeat against Sweden’s Hacken in the Europa League.

SQUAD

GOALKEEPERS
S. Dimitrievski (Rayo Vallecano, Spain); D. Shishkovski (Doxa, Cyprus), I. Aleksovski (Rabotnicki).

DEFENDERS
E. Alioski (Al-Ahli, Saudi Arabia), V. Musliu (Paderborn, Germany), D. Velkovski (Al-Ettifaq, Saudi Arabia), G. Zajkov (U. Craiova, Romania), S. Ashkovski (Lamia, Greece), N. Serafimov (Fehervar, Hungary), B. Dimoski (Akron, Russia), J. Manev (Adana Demirspor, Turkey), A. Iljazovski (Hvidovre, Denmark).

MIDFIELDERS
E. Bardhi (Trabzonspor, Turkey), E. Elmas (Napoli, Italy), A. Demi (Beijing Gouan, China), D. Babunski (Mezokovsed, Hungary), J. Atanasov (W. Krakow, Poland), A. Elezi (Varazdin, Croatia), D. Mitrovski (Varazdin, Croatia), D. Zdravkovski (Motherwell, Scotland).

FORWARDS
A. Trajkovski (unattached), I. Nestorovski (Ascoli, Italy), M. Ristovski (Spartak Trnava, Slovakia), B. Miovski (Aberdeen, Scotland), L. Doriev (Sogdiana, Uzbekistan), D. Babunski (Grasshopper, Switzerland).