ARMENIA-MACEDONIA
Miusoccer.com
Oct 6 2011
Only one side here has a motive to play at all, and that is Armenia
who are on 14 points and with some chance still to at least finish
2nd, and with Slovakia -also on 14 points- hosting Russia who are
atop with 17 points; Armenia has a golden chance of messing up the
cards if they can win here.
Before I go an and to clarify, let’s take the hypothetical assumption
of Slovakia managing a win over Russia with Armenia beating Macedonia
into consideration. In theis case all 3 sides will be on 17 points with
one game to go for each. In this hypothetical and temporary situation
Armenia will have the advantage with 7 points having drawn at home
to Russia and done the double over Slovakia. Slovakia already beat
Russia in Moscow so they will have 6 points while Russia will be at
a disadvantage with only 4 points from a win and a draw vs Armenia.
Russia will still have a better chance as they will host Andorra
in their last game while Armenia will have to travel to Dublin and
Slovakia will take the short trip to Skopje.
Worthy to mention is that Ireland has 15 points as we speak and
they play away to Andorra, so the situation for Armenia is even more
complicated than it looks, but the point is a win over Macedonia is
a must to keep the Armenians in the run.
Macedonia has nothing to play for as they have only harvested 7 points
from therir previosu 8 games (2 wins over bottom side Andorra plus
a home draw vs Armenia).
Armenia scored 7 without conceding in their last 2 games while
Macedonia only scored once in their last 3 games (or 2 in their last
5), so obviously I will be backing the side on better form that has
a higher motive and is backed by the home fans.
Final words: Pandev is out injured for Macedonia.