Austria vs. North Macedonia: Preview and betting tips

On the third day of play, Austria and North Macedonia will play their first matches. Will the newcomer from North Macedonia surprise or will the favourites win?

Austria’s preparations for EURO 2020 have not gone well. They lost their first match on English soil by the narrowest possible margin of 0:1, with England’s youngster Saka scoring, then drew 0:0 with Slovakia at home.

North Macedonia had a better preparation. First they drew 1: 1 with Slovenia in a match in which they only let the victory slip away in the seventh minute of the second half. Their second match was against Kazakhstan, where they won 4:0.

Austria’s mainstay is their captain David Alaba. He has had amazing years at Bayern Munich, where he managed to win the Champions League, the Super Cup, the Club World Cup, the Bundesliga, the German Cup and the German Super Cup, but now he is off to a new challenge at Real Madrid.

He has been playing for the national team since he was seventeen and became the youngest player in the Austrian national team’s history.

For North Macedonia we can look forward to the experienced striker Goran Pandev. According to his words, Macedonia is going for promotion. Pandev has been circling in Italy his whole career, only in the 2014/2015 season he defended the colours of Turkish Galatasaray.

For Macedonia, this is the first major tournament in its history, while the Austrians are playing at the European Championships for the third time. They fought their way to the European Championships in 2008 and 2016, but in both tournaments they earned only 1 point and neither time was it enough to advance from the group.

Considering that Austria’s preparation has not been great and this is the first tournament for Macedonia, I think they will want to show their stuff.