NORTH MACEDONIA have made it to a first football finals.
After a terrific campaign in the 2018/19 Nations League, the Balkan nation won in Georgia to qualify for Euro 2020.
Where is North Macedonia?
FORMERLY part of Yugoslavia, North Macedonia has been independent since September 1991.
It became a member of the UN two years later – but due to a dispute with Greece over the name ‘Macedonia’ was admitted as the ‘former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia’, or FYR Macedonia for short.
North Macedonia is a land-locked country and shares a border with Greece, Kosovo, Albania, Bulgaria and Serbia.
It’s capital is Skopje, which is home to around 550,000 people as of 2017.
How long have they had a football team?
IN March 2018, Macedonia and Greece resolved their long-running dispute on the countries name and agreed on the Republic of North Macedonia.
This came into effect 11 months later in February 2019, with the transition period used to change passports, licence plates, currency, border signs, and government websites.
Football is huge in the country and is rivalled only by handball as the most popular sport – and since 1993 they had competed in Fifa and Uefa competition as FYR Macedonia.
As a result, the first major qualifying tournament that Macedonia participated in as an independent nation were Euro 96 qualifiers.
They play home games at the Tose Proeski Arena in Skopje and have yet to reach a major tournament.
The stadium use to be called the Philip II Arena, after the ancient king, who was father to Alexander the Great.
But it the name was changed to honour late singer Proeski as part of North Macedonia’s agreement with Greece, which said all sites named after Greek historical figures must be renamed.
The first game they undertook after the name change to North Macedonia was a Euro 2020 qualifying clash against Latvia in March, which ended in a 3-1 win.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
