The story behind North Macedonia's coup: from not scoring a point in the Euro Cup won by Italy to leaving the champion without a World Cup

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North Macedonia has just two million inhabitants. The national team began competing in 1993, after the split of Yugoslavia. It is one of the smallest nations in Europe. But he struck one of the biggest blows: he defeated Italy (Euro Cup champion) 1-0 in Palermo and left him without a World Cup for the second consecutive edition. In addition, he was at the gates of his first World Cup. To be in Qatar on Tuesday, he must beat Portugal in the last link of the repechage.

With a crossed shot from outside the box, Aleksandar Trajkovski, in the 93rd minute and when the match was heading towards the elongation, he signed the impact that shook the football world. The statistics became an anecdote: those led by Roberto Mancini kicked 20 times in the goal. North Macedonia, just one. Little did it matter to the crowd of fans who traveled to Italy with the illusion of triumph.

More about the contrasts: Azzurra appears in 6th place in the FIFA ranking, key to defining the top seeds for the World Cup. North Macedonia... 67.

However, it was showing signs of its growth. The team led by Igor Angelovski, who as a footballer had a long career in clubs in his country, but also played in the Slovenian and Serbian leagues, had won entry to the Euro for the first time in its history. He fell in Pool C and lost all three matches to Austria (1-3), Ukraine (1-2) and the Netherlands (0-3). Yes, in the same competition in which Italy became champion...

But in March 2021 he had struck his first big blow by beating Germany 2-1. To illustrate the contrast, while the Germans were playing the 1994 World Cup in the United States, Macedonia was ranked 194th in the FIFA ranking, so it was unimaginable that there could be such a bump.

They wanted the chance and fate that the scorer of the goal was Trajkovski, who knew the venue of the match closely: he played for Palermo between 2015 and 2019. There, where he knew how to stand out (then he went through Mallorca in Spain, the Aalborg in Denmark, and today he wears the jacket of the Al-Fayha of Saudi Arabia), he left his mark on history.

Macedonia had finished second in Group J of the UEFA Qualifiers, with 18 points, 9 fewer than Germany, who got direct passage. But he relegated Romania, with more history, and Iceland, who had said he was present at the World Cup in Russia 2018.

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