Germany surprisingly suffered a humiliating defeat to North Macedonia in the European zone's 2022 World Cup qualifiers. The result of this match stunned the world as people did not expect Germany to lose considering their winning record. After winning two victories over Iceland and Romania, suddenly Germany was defeated by North Macedonia.
Almost all predictions favored Germany to win 2-0 or 3-0, but the result is 1-2 for North Macedonia. North Macedonia scored two winning goals by Goran Pandev and Eljif Elmas while Germany scored one goal by Ilkay Gundogan. This North Macedonia victory even took place at home to Germany.
Who is North Macedonia who managed to conquer Germany? Are we witnessing the rise of a new dark horse from Europe?
Germany are favorites to win the 2020 Euro (postponed to this year) so it should come as no surprise that many were shocked by their defeat. But maybe not many people know that North Macedonia also qualified for the 2020 Euro so they have more or less strength to reckon with.
Their position as an underdog makes North Macedonia a potential dark horse that can overthrow established teams.
According to history, several times Europe gave birth to dark horses that shocked the world.
In the 90s there were at least 3 of the most phenomenal dark horses in Europe, namely Denmark, Bulgaria and Croatia. Denmark managed to win the 1992 Euro, while Croatia finished at the third place at the 1998 World Cup.
Meanwhile, in the 2000s we witnessed the mighty of Turkey, Russia and Greece, which successfully captured the world's attention. Greece became the most phenomenal because they surprisingly managed to win the 2004 Euro by beating Portugal, France and Czech. Turkey also stunned the world by placed third at the 2002 World Cup.
Then recently we have also seen Iceland's action which was able to knock England out of the last 16 of the 2016 Euro and held Argentina to a draw at the 2018 World Cup.
Who would have thought we would see again the birth of a new dark horse who made it to the 2020 Euro and beat Germany at the 2022 World Cup qualifiers. These various events show that North Macedonia cannot be underestimated.
Talking about North Macedonia, maybe we only know Goran Pandev, a 37-year-old player who has played with top Italian football clubs such as inter Milan, Napoli and Lazio. But North Macedonia is not just Pandev. There are at least 3 other key players in North Macedonia, namely Enis Bardhi who is playing for Levante, Eljif Elmas who is playing for Napoli and Ezgjan Alioski who is playing for Leeds United. These three players are the real backbone of North Macedonia.
Finally, only time will tell whether North Macedonia have what it takes to be a dark horse or not. The 2020 Euro and the 2022 World Cup will be proper stages to prove what their worth to the world.
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