Macedonian champion Vardar registered their second defeat in UEFA Europa league, this time against Norwegian champion FC Rosenborg.
Similarly to the previous match against Zenith, Vardar’s defense was subpar, Boban Grncharov once again showed his age does have an impact as the central defender wasn’t able to cope against speedy players.
Rosenborg came to their first goal via a penalty after Musliu rather clumsily brought down Bendtner who then converted the penalty. Apart from Blazevski cannon who rattles the post, Vardar essentially showed nothing throughout the match as Rosenborg increased their lead to 2-0 and then 3-0 via some superb back heel play by Bendtner.
In the end, some consolation for Vardar as Felipe scored a superb goal in the dying seconds of the match.
One thing that became evident to us, apart from Vardar’s non existent defense, the midfield is quite weak due to the sale of Spirovski to Ferencvaros. Spirovski was the engine in the midfield who tirelessly ran for 90 minutes. His absence is very noticeable. In addition, the sale of Boaterro (nicknamed Balotelli) is extremely noticeable in the attack. Although Boaterro was not the best of goal scorers, he was by far the fastest and the most menacing player in Vardar who would often burst into the attack and create chances due to his lightning speed. He was sold to a Qatari club last month.
What is strange, Vardar bought four players, among which is Brazilian Italo who has already shown that he has an eye for goal, however not just Italo, but none of the recently purchased players is getting a chance to play in the Europa league. Why were they brought in?
