North Macedonia handed former world champions Germany a shock 2-1 defeat in the third game of their World Cup qualifying campaign on Wednesday.
Goran Pandev’s late first-half goal was cancelled out by Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan in the second-half before Eljis Elmas grabbed the winner for North Macedonia in the 85th minute.
Reflecting on the game, Leeds star Alioski explained how beating Germany has added to the Red Lions’ joy, having already qualified for the European Championship for the first time in their history.
The left-back asserted that the team were determined to get a positive result against the former world champions despite not many giving them a chance.
“The fact that we qualified for the European Championship was already a great feeling“, Alioski was quoted as saying by Dutch magazine Voetbal International.
“Now we have beaten Germany.
“Nobody believed in it, but we said: ‘We want to make it as difficult as possible for them and achieve a positive result’.
“The question was only: what is a positive result? A draw or win.“
Alioski also admitted that the win over Germany feels like winning something big for North Macedonia and insisted that many will be surprised by the result.
“[It is] comparable to winning something big“, the left-back added.
“If you beat such a big footballing country, it is unbelievable for us.
“We also played against Germany for the first time.
“When you see what kind of players they have in the team and what they have all won, and then we come here and we just win 2-1.
“When people see that result, they will certainly be surprised.“
Having enjoyed a good time with the national team, Alioski will now be looking to help Leeds to have a strong to end their Premier League campaign.
