North Macedonia head coach Blagoja Milevski commented on his team's defeat to Ukraine (0:2) in the Euro 2024 qualifying match yesterday in Prague.
Blagoja Milevski. Photo - A.Popov"We managed to impose our game on the opponent, but failed to score a goal. And if you don't utilise your chances (which we had plenty of in this match), defeat is inevitable.
Every time you start a match, your plans for the game change to a greater or lesser extent. We conceded an offensive goal, in the second half we had to open up, and Ukraine had more space for attacks and more chances to build on their success. Unfortunately, the opponent eventually took one of those chances.
There is no football lesson to be learnt from this match, because we played solidly. There is nothing left for us but to fight until the end of the qualifying cycle.
As for the Ukraine national team, I think this team learnt the right lessons from the match with Italy (1:2 - ed.). In general, these two national teams are similar to each other not only in the fact that they are made up of quality performers, but also in terms of formation, and we wanted to use this today.
Once again, I have nothing to blame the guys for today's match. As for England and Italy, the two favourites of our group, it's okay, we'll play football with them and see what happens. Moreover, today our team again showed that they can play good football and are not afraid of anyone," Macedonian media quoted Milevski as saying.
