Vardar vs. Metalurg Skopje - Preview

The most famous Macedonian football team, Vardar, have already claimed the title. There was a chance to win the championship without any defeat, but lost in Tetovo against Shkendija, one of their main rivals nowadays.
Historically, Vardar\'s most bitter rivals are Pelister and Rabotnicki, but now the things have changed and Shkendija seems to be their most bitter rival. The fans of both teams and the nationality makes it - Vardar are the symbol of the Macedonian football, Shkendija is owned and supported by Albanians who live in Macedonia. The background is very important factor in Macedonia. Because of this background, I don\'t expect Vardar\'s fans to be so sad if Vardar lose this match.
The match is very important because decides the second placed team. Metalurg have one point more than Shkendija, but tough match. Shkendija has easier match against Napredok in Kicevo.  I\'ve explained shortly the background of the match. It\'s also important to mention that Vardar lost in Tetovo exactly against Shkendija 1:0 and it\'s their only defeat this season. They are not playing so good recently and have 3 draws in a row at home. In the other 13 home matches, they have 12 wins and one draw.
If we compare the squads, I think that both teams have the same quality, maybe Metalurg is slightly better at the moment. The reason why Vardar is the champion is that Metalurg had big problems scoring in the autumn part of the season. Now the visitors have Gjorgi Hristov as a head coach, Macedonian best goalscorer of all time, a man who knows how to motivate his players and to show them some secrets of scoring. He has good relations with Vardar b.t.w. Ilija Nestoroski is very talented player who joined the club in january and the results got better after his arrival. Also, the young and talented Curlinov scores in almost every match this spring. The experienced Nacevski also scores many goals, so Metalurg has 3 excellent strikers for Macedonian conditions.
From the other side, Vardar has the best player in the whole championship, Filip Ivanovski. Also, Vardar has two very experienced and quality central defenders, Vajs and Bojovic and two Nigerian internationals. All in all, I don\'t expect an interesting match, both teams have very good defences. I also expect Metalurg to win here, I\'d say 0:1 only because they have motivation and also Vardar will more likely see them as a second placed team than their bitter rivals from Tetovo.