Macedonia will take on Spain in their eighth game of the Euro 2016 Qualifiers at Skopje on Tuesday.
Spain will be looking forward to stretch their lead at the top of the points table. Recently, La Roja removed Slovakia from the top of the table and are the favourites to emerge as the group winner and qualify for the main stage of the Euro 2016, which will be held in France.
On the other hand, Macedonia have never qualified for a major tournament and Euro 2016 is far from reality for them. But they would want to finish above Belarus and Luxembourg.
At this moment, Macedonia are languishing at the bottom of the points table.
It has been an awful qualifying campaign for Macedonia so far. They have only managed to win one game out of seven games. They started off with a 5-1 loss against Spain in the opening game of Group C and won against Luxembourg, 3-2. But after that they lost all their games. Now they have a mountainous task ahead of them as they will be taking on the two-time European champions, Spain.
"This is a great day for Macedonian football. We are playing against Spain, one of the best teams in the world, former world champions and reigning European champions. I hope the stadium will be at full capacity and that we'll give our best. Spain are absolute favourites, they have a fantastic squad, but I believe we can get back on our feet in the best way possible after the defeat by Luxembourg. We'll give our all to be a worthy opponent and try and get a good result. We have to give more than 100 percent so we have a chance of springing a surprise," said FYR Macedonia coach Ljubinko Drulović ahead of their clash against the La Roja.
Spain will be coming into the match riding high on momentum as they secured a well deserved three points against Slovakia on Saturday. Jordi Alba and Andreas Iniesta scored a goal each and displaced their opponents from the top of the points table.
"I think our game against Slovakia was probably our best since the World Cup. We do have great players. Even though new players have arrived to the squad, those of us that played last year in Brazil want to continue to prove that we can do a good job and play more games with La Roja," Pedro Rodriguez told reporters after their win against Slovakia on Saturday.
Spain have been beaten in the European qualifying campaign only once when they went 2-1 down against Slovakia. That ended their 36-match unbeaten run. Post their clash against Macedonia, they will have two more matches to play against Luxembourg and Ukraine. But they would surely want to finish the qualifying round as the winner of Group C.
Either sides are unlikely to make any major changes to their squad. One can expect Spain thumping a number of goals in the Macedonian net on Tuesday.
Expected Lineups:
Macedonia: Pachovski; Ristevski, Shikov, Alioski, Zhuta; Gilgorov, Petrovic; Ibraimi, Muarem, Trajkovski; Ivanovski.
Spain: De Gea; Juanfran, Pique, Ramos, Alba; Iniesta, Busquets, Koke; Silva, Costa, Pedro.
Where to watch live:
The European Qualifier game between Macedonia and Spain is scheduled for an 8.45pm local time (12.15am IST, 7.45pm BST, 2.45pm ET) start with live coverage in India on Sony Six HD. The Euro 2016 qualifier can also be watched via live streaming online on Livsports.
Viewers in the US can catch all the qualifying action live on Fox Sports 2, while the live stream option is on Fox Sports Go. Australia audience can catch Macedonia vs Spain live also on ESPN 3.
Sky Sports 1 will show Macedonia vs Spain live in the UK, while the match can also be live streamed on Sky Go.
