National cups are something special for many teams and supporters. Today's match will decide whether it's Skendija 79 or Struga that keep their silverware dream alive.
It’s busy days for these teams as both were in action only a few days ago. There’s no rest for the wicked, or in this case; no rest for Skendija and Struga.
Skendija 79 form and stats
Last season, Skendija's Macedonian Cup journey ended in the quarter-finals.14 points is a decent return from 7 First League games here at Ecolog Arena for Skendija 79. The data says 4 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss.
Happy days for Skendija in their previous game, a First League match away at Makedonija that ended with a 2-1 victory.
Before that game, the 1-0 home victory against Bregalnica Stip.The hosts are favourites to win this game, with an estimated chance of about 55-60% of that outcome. Earlier Skendija 79 matches with similar probabilities have ended with zero wins, two draws and zero defeats (from two games).
The match schedule is unforgiving for Skendija as they have a new game in only four days, a First League match thankfully also at home. Pelister are visiting.
A decent goal production from Skendija in their home games so far, with 12 goals from 7 league matches. Skendija have showed great defending skills in these home games, allowing the opposition to score only 3 goals.
Struga form and stats
Last season their Macedonian Cup adventure ended in the semi-finals.Struga have only collected 7 points from their away games in the First League, after 1-4-3 (8 played).
Struga lost away at Shkupi (0-4) in their previous game and are perhaps starting to feel homesick. As you can see from the result above, the defeat against Shkupi was particularly ugly (0-4). The humiliation is still top of mind.
Prior to that match, a home win 1-0 against Rabotnicki in the First League.As mentioned above, the odds for this match puts the home team as favourites. Perhaps this eases the pressure on the away team, who are capable of producing an upset here on a good day. Looking at earlier matches with similar odds and Struga playing away, we found one game. Results were zero away wins, zero draws and one home win.
After this away game Struga return home for a First League game against Tikves. That game is only four sleeps after this.
There's been a serious shortage of goals from Struga's away games in the league this season with only 4 goals from 8 matches. 9 goals have been conceded by Struga in these games.
Head 2 Head
Head-2-head stats last six meetings: two - two - two (Skendija wins - draws - Struga wins). As for goals, one match ended with three or more goals (over 2,5), five had two or less.Top Goalscorers
  L. Doriev 6 goals | S. Guri 4 goals |  E. Skenderi 4 goals |
Skendija 79 missing players
Struga missing players
| Skendija 79 | Struga | ||||||
| Total | Home | Statistics | Stat | Away | Total | ||
| 25 | 13 | Played | P | 12 | 25 | ||
| 11 | 6 | Won | W | 4 | 10 | ||
| 7 | 3 | Drew | D | 5 | 11 | ||
| 7 | 4 | Lost | L | 3 | 4 | ||
| 38 | 20 | Scored | S | 10 | 25 | ||
| 28 | 9 | Conceded | C | 10 | 20 | ||
| 92% | 92% | Over 0.5 | O 0.5 | 92% | 88% | ||
| 76% | 69% | Over 1.5 | O 1.5 | 58% | 56% | ||
| 44% | 38% | Over 2.5 | O 2.5 | 8% | 12% | ||
| 24% | 15% | Over 3.5 | O 3.5 | 8% | 12% | ||
| 16% | 8% | Over 4.5 | O 4.5 | 0% | 8% | ||
| 40% | 31% | BTTS | BTTS | 33% | 40% | ||
| 40% | 46% | Clean Sheets | C S | 42% | 48% | ||
| 28% | 31% | Failed to Score | F T | 33% | 24% | ||
| 6 | 5.6 | Corners for (avg) | C F | 4.3 | 4.6 | ||
| 2.9 | 2.4 | Corners against (avg) | C A | 3.3 | 3.2 | ||
| 2.6 | 2.6 | Yellow cards (avg) | Y C | 2.6 | 2.7 | ||
| 1 | 0 | Red cards | R C | 1 | 2 | ||
| 11.3 | 14.1 | Shots (avg) | S ( | 7.7 | 8.9 | ||
| 5.1 | 6.3 | Shots on Target (avg) | S O | 2.7 | 3.5 | ||
| 29% | 26% | Goal Efficiency | G E | 27% | 26% | ||
| 7.5 | 7.8 | Shots against (avg) | S A | 6 | 5.9 | ||
| 2.7 | 2.3 | Shots on Target against (avg) | S O | 2.3 | 2.4 | ||
| Total | Home | Away | |||||||||||||||||||
| # | Team | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | +/- | P |
| 1 | Shkupi | 15 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 36 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 27 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 7 | 27 | 35 |
| 2 | Akademija Pandev | 15 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 26 | 14 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 15 | 9 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 11 | 5 | 12 | 31 |
| 3 | Skendija 79 | 15 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 24 | 12 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 12 | 3 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 12 | 9 | 12 | 27 |
| 4 | Renova | 15 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 24 | 14 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 13 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 7 | 10 | 25 |
| 5 | Bregalnica Stip | 15 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 23 | 22 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 17 | 8 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 14 | 1 | 25 |
| 6 | Struga | 15 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 13 | 13 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 9 | 4 | 8 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 9 | 0 | 22 |
| 7 | Makedonija | 15 | 6 | 2 | 7 | 20 | 28 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 14 | 10 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 18 | -8 | 20 |
| 8 | Rabotnicki | 15 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 16 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 10 | -6 | 18 |
| 9 | Skopje | 15 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 18 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 13 | -7 | 17 |
| 10 | Tikves | 15 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 14 | 19 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 12 | -5 | 13 |
| 11 | Borec | 15 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 12 | 29 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 12 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 17 | -17 | 8 |
| 12 | Pelister | 15 | 0 | 5 | 10 | 4 | 23 | 8 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 10 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 13 | -19 | 5 |