Hristov injury compounds problems for Macedonia
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Your support makes all the difference.Georgi Hristov joined his Macedonian team-mates in Southampton yesterday ahead of this evening's Euro 2004 qualifier but the former Barnsley striker will not play any part in the match.
"Hristov is one of our most experienced players and he is important to us," Nikola Ilievski, the Macedonia coach, said. "But how fit he is I do not know." Although Hristov underwent intensive treatment at his Dutch club, NEC Nijmegen, between his country's 2-1 defeat to Turkey last Saturday and flying to England, any participation tonight is rated as extremely doubtful.
The player's absence is the latest in a long line of problems Ilievski has faced. He said after the Turkey game that he felt like resigning and only refrained from doing so because people might think he was running scared of England. "The national team is in chaos," he said. "There is a lack of organisation, political interference. I have no agreement as a coach, I have no insurance." He added that he has not been paid for seven months. "If the Macedonian Football Association does not change its attitude toward the national team, I will quit the coach position after the match against England."
Yesterday he added that his young squad – with 14 players aged 24 or under, including three teenagers – lacked experience, and without Hristov, a natural on-field leader. But he said that he is still "optimistic" about facing Sven Goran Eriksson's side. "Anything can happen in football," he said. "My job is to prepare my team. My players will learn from this match whatever the result."
Macedonia's solitary point so far in Group Seven came from a 1-1 away draw with Liechtenstein. However, history suggests they will struggle to get even that tonight. "We have given a lot of big teams a tough game at home but our away form is not good," Hristov admitted. "The Liechtenstein match is a good example of that because we are capable of beating someone like that quite easily but for some reason it doesn't happen."
In Macedonia's last major campaign, for the 2002 World Cup, they won one match in 10, against Azerbaijan, and lost twice to Slovakia, 2-0 away and 5-0 at home.
Still, Macedonian upsets are not completely unknown, as Mick McCarthy's Republic of Ireland side found out in April 1997, when they lost 3-2 in Skopje. This prompted McCarthy to introduce a training jersey with "I had a Macedonia" written on it for the worst performers in training.
The Irish were also held to a 1-1 draw during Euro 2000 qualifying, in which Macedonia finished fourth in their group, as they have in every European Championship or World Cup qualifying group they have ever been in. They are favourites to finish fourth in the Euro 2004 group, too, but should be no worse than second-best tonight.
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