Ezgjan Alioski had been building himself up for the Gibraltar match all week.
In a must-win Nations League game for Macedonia (because if they can’t win that there’s not much hope), Alioski knew he’d have to shine and transfer some of his club football to the international stage.
Earlier this week the Leeds United player had been talking about how brilliant everything is with his football at the moment, thanks to the managerial change at Elland Road: “It’s all thanks to the new coach of Leeds, the experienced Bielsa. He brought a lot of freshness into our team that was the same from last season, but I see a huge difference in the game, in the approach and in the output and in the results.
“Of course, such a coaching name also affects my game. I feel great and I believe that I will transfer the form to the national jersey for the match against Gibraltar.”
It worked and the 26 year was able to be the important player for Macedonia that he intended, scoring a fine goal against the hosts in a 2-0 victory.
He was brought off on 77 minutes, to maintain his fitness, and avoid injury against a tough team on an artificial pitch.
After the match, Alioski spoke to the media and has been quoted by Ekipa as saying: “The most important thing is that we came to victory, it was difficult to play on artificial turf but we managed to achieve the planned result. The opponent was too aggressive at times, we wanted to save our strength for the next match, so when we sum it up we have a successful story from Gibraltar.”
