Macedonia drawed against Iran in Teheran

Teheran, Iran - Macedonia drawed against Iran on Azadi Stadium in today's friendly.

Iran - Macedonia 1-1 (1-0)
Friendly Match, Teheran

Goals: 1-0 Teymourian (36' / Assist by Meydavoudi)
1-1 Pandev (49')

Today's friendly soccer match was a chance to check the capacity of both squads. On such a rainy day, both teams had one half to show their skills.


Iranian coach Afshin Ghotbi played with the following team: Rahmati - Kaebi, Aghili, Nosrati, Beikzadeh - Teymourian, Nekounam (46' Mobali) - Kazemian (46' Khalatbari), Shojaei (76' Ansarifard), Madanchi (57' Heydari) - Meydavoudi (67' Borhani).

Macedonian squad led by Mirsad Jonuz selected the following players:

Goalkeepers: Tome Pachovski - Germinal Beerschot, Belgium; Kristijan Naumovski - Rabotnicki, Macedonia;


Defenders: Goce Sedloski - SV Mattersburg, Austria; Vlade Lazarevski - FK Karpaty Lviv, Ukraine; Goran Popov - SC Heerenveen, Netherlands; Nikolce Noveski - FSV Mainz 05, Germany; Daniel Mojsov - FK Makedonija Gjorce Petrov , Macedonia; Robert Popov - Auxerre, France;

Midfielders: Veliche Shumulikoski - Preston North End, England; Filip Despotovski - FK Vorskla Poltava, Ukraine; Armend Alimi - NK Istra, Croatia; Slavco Georgievski - Ulsan Hyundai, South Korea; Gligor Gligorov - Sileks, Macedonia;

Strikers: Goran Pandev - SS Lazio, Italy; Aco Stojkov - FC Aarau, Switzerland; Filip Ivanovski - Polonia Warszawa, Poland; Besart Ibraimi - FK Renova, Macedonia; Dusan Savić - Rabotnicki, Macedonia.


The few spectators saw an even first half under pouring rain, in which the Macedonians had the better chances, but faild to convert, while Iranians mainly relied on shots from far out, which mostly were all but dangerous.

One such effort led to the homeside's lead in minute 36. Meydavoudi smacked a freekick on goal and Pachovski could not hold on to the wet ball, so Teymourian tapped in the rebound from close range.

Macedonia responded just four minutes into second half, when a cross from the right side found superstar Pandev on the far post, who perfectly headed the ball past the chanceless Mehdi Rahmati.

Iran now created more chances than in first half, but Iman Mobali (51' / shot), Mohammad Nosrati (52' / header), Teymourian (55' / shot) and Masoud Shojaei (64' / volley) faild to bring Iran back in front.

On the other side Macedonia remained dangerous through counter attacks, but Pandev (49') and Ibraimi (65') were denied by Rahmati.

Iran looked more eager to win than the guests during the final minutes, but saw a Hadi Aghili header saved by the goalkeeper, seven minutes from time.

FK Pelister

FK Pelister (Macedonian: ФК Пелистер) is a football club based in the city of Bitola, Republic of Macedonia. The team plays in the Macedonian First League.

The club was originally formed back in 1924 under the name Omladina, followed by Pelister and then SK Bitola. In 1945 the team was renamed back to Pelister and has used that name ever since. 

The team played in the lower divisions of the former Yugoslavia and were champions of Macedonia in 1960, 1961, 1975 and 1982 along with winning the old Macedonian Cup in 1990. They earned promotion to the Yugoslav Second League for the first in team history in 1974. Soon after they were relegated but made another comeback in 1982 with Mitko Butlevski as chairman and Ivan Čabrinović as manager.

Their greatest achievement up to date was winning the 2001 Macedonian Cup, after which they played in the UEFA Cup. Since the formation of the Macedonian First League, they played there every season up until 2003 when the team fell on hard times caused by financial problems. 

A few years later former players Mitko Stojkovski and Toni Micevski were able to save the club from collapse, after taking over the club they brought instant success with the team winning the Macedonian Second League title in 2005. The following year they made a successful comeback to the Macedonian First League and got to the Macedonian Cup semi-final.

Notable players to come from the Pelister youth system are: Gjorgji Hristov, Dragan Kanatlarovski, Toni Micevski, Nikolče Noveski, Toni Savevski and Mitko Stojkovski. Overall the club is best known for developing some of the best young talents in the country.

Pelister played 3 times in the National Cup Finals (1993, 1994, 2001) and won the Macedonian National Football Cup once in 2001.

Goran Pandev - Una magia 19

Goran Pandev is the best fooball player that Macedonia has in this moment, and one of the best players in the history of macedonia football together with ones like Darko Pancev, Sasa Ciric, Ilija Najdovski and Gjorgi Hristov. For the last five years he played for SS Lazio from Rome in the Italian Seria A.

In his honour, Macedonian musician created this song. It is performed by Toni Zen and Tamara Todevska. Goran Pandev - icon of the macedonian football!!! Forza Pandev! ;-)