North Macedonia could not believe that they successfully defeated Germany on March 31, 2021, in a 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification match. Germany were expected to defeat the lowly rated national team convincingly but the reverse was the case.
Before Germany could know what was happening in the World Cup qualification match, North Macedonia had taken the lead in the additional minutes of the first half courtesy of Goran Pandev’s strike.
The goal was expected to be a fluke and Germany were expected to bring on their A-game in the second half. The four-time FIFA World Cup champions managed to get back into the game through a spot-kick taken by Ilkay Gundogan.
After that, the European football giants continued to press the lowly rated North Macedonia, recording 11 shots but only two of those shots were on target. Germany however enjoyed 70 percent of the ball possession.
Despite all that, North Macedonia came firing again but this time around it was in the 85th minute. Immediately the lowly rated European team scored the second goal in the match through the boots of Eljif Elmas, the team carried on the 2-1 lead until the end of the game.
At the end of the game, football fans across the world could not stop dragging Chelsea’s forward, Timo Werner, for the unbelievable goalscoring opportunity he missed in the game. The German star was in the box-eighteen about 10 minutes before the final whistle and all that was expected of him was to slot in the ball but decided to play wide.
Germany have lost 2-1 to North Macedonia, and Timo Werner missed this chance to Germany ahead with 10 minutes to go. pic.twitter.com/pzsgXGZfqS
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) March 31, 2021
The home defeat was not only an embarrassment to Germany but has forced them to occupy the 3rd spot on the Group J table of the World Cup qualification round behind first placed Armenia and second-placed North Macedonia.
🇦🇲 3-2 🇷🇴
— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) March 31, 2021
🇩🇪 1-2 🇲🇰
🇱🇮 1-4 🇮🇸
🤯 Who would have predicted this a week ago? Stunning successes by Armenia and North Macedonia 👏#WCQ | #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/31e0rhCM5c
In an interview after the game, the coach of North Macedonia, Igor Angelovski said the country has never beaten a team as successful as the German national team.
“These lads have made North Macedonia proud against the winners of four World Cup titles and three European championships,” North Macedonia coach Igor Angelovski said.
“We’ve never beaten a team with so many titles. Now we have to get some rest as what we have accomplished still hasn’t sunk in.”
While Germany coach Joachim Low said: “This is bitterly disappointing. We were not fresh enough, we made mistakes. When we played quickly we were dangerous but we did not find the tools to be really threatening.
“Overall, it was disappointing to lose like that at home.”
