Macedonia came from being two goals down in its World Cup qualifier against Romania, but eventually lost the game 3:2. Coach Igor Angelovski said that he has not seen his team create so many chances against a team of Romania’s caliber, and that it’s sad so many of the chances were not taken.

We showed we can stand up to teams who are of greater quality than us, Angelovski said after the game.

Romania took the lead through Tanase in the 28th minute and made it 2:0 in the 50th minute through Mihaila. But in the final ten minutes, Macedonia came back in the game, with goals from Ademi and Trajkovski. Still, Ianis Hagi helped the home team win the points when he scored in the 86th minute.

We were on the verge of losing all we built for 80 minutes at the end of the game. We must analyze those few minutes when we lost the plot. We played against a quality opponent who will participate in the next European Championship. I congratulate Pandev, I haven’t seen a player his age control the ball so well and find room so easily, said Romanian coach Mirel Radoi.