The head coach of the Macedonian A national team, Blagoja Milevski and the captain Stefan Ristovski spoke at an official press conference about the expectations from tomorrow's match against Malta at the "Todor Proeski" National Arena.

Blagoja Milevski - head coach of the Macedonian A national team

"Of course, the analyzes we did were from the last four matches in Malta, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it will be like that in the next match because they have a new coach, but the players are the same. It is about a quality representation, with quality individual characteristics of the players. We have maximum respect for the opponent, but I will emphasize that everything that will happen in the match depends to the greatest extent on ourselves. When I see the way the boys look, I am more than confident that we will have a successful start in these qualifiers. But, in today's football, there are no favorites, we will have to put our best effort into success."

"The League of Nations came after excellent World Cup qualifiers in which we were second for the first time, after two outstanding qualifiers for the World Cup, so we had problems with the squad. The reality is that we have 20 to 25 players who are competitive, but unfortunately we did not have all the players available. We have added 12 debutants who need time to acclimatize to everything required in the national team. And we used those matches to create chemistry between the younger and experienced players, and from meeting to meeting we look better and better as a team. Therefore, I see no reason why we should not progress. That is the main goal, and we also have opponents who are a challenge, we will try to respond in the best way"

Stefan Ristovski - captain of the Macedonian A national team

"It is one of the more difficult groups in these qualifications, but throughout the cycle we were dealing with injuries and were not complete. We are a selection that unfortunately does not have a wide range of players, but I am glad that we are all here at the moment and I hope that we will be healthy throughout the year. That is the most important thing. We know each other well enough and are experienced in this national team.

I have said many times that all rivals are extremely high-quality national teams, here are the favorites for the European title, England and Italy, as well as Ukraine, which has excellent results. We are going step by step, we have a good schedule and if we open the match against Malta in a good way, we will have a wind at our back for the next games."