Kristijan Trapanovski made his senior debut for North Macedonia on an emotional afternoon for the visitors in Vaduz.
The Dundee United winger – fresh from finding the net in the Tangerines’ losing derby effort last Sunday – entered the fray after 80 minutes against Liechtenstein on Saturday afternoon.
While Trapanovski previously played in a non-FIFA recognised friendly against Saudi Arabia, featuring only domestic players, this was effectively his competitive bow.
Discussing the prospect of making his debut earlier this season, Trapanovski said: “It’s a dream for me to play for the national team”, citing that drive as a major factor behind his move to Tannadice.
A minute’s silence was held prior to kick-off to commemorate the victims of the nightclub fire in the Macedonian town of Kocani which killed 59 and injured scores more.
The country is in a period of official mourning.
It was against that backdrop that Blagoja Milevski’s side claimed a 3-0 victory to begin their World Cup qualification campaign. Aleksandar Trajkovski, Visar Musliu and former Aberdeen hero Bojan Miovski scored the goals.
Gratitude
Milevski told Sportssport.mk: “I have a huge gratitude to all those supporters who came here to cheer us on. Macedonia will survive and we are all showing it – even in these difficult, tragic moments.
“Honestly, it didn’t matter to me how, and in what way, we would win. The three points were all-important. We had a lot on our minds.”
Trapanovski’s club teammate, David Babunski, was not named in the matchday squad despite being part of the group.
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