North Macedonia vs Bulgaria prediction, preview, team news and more | UEFA Nations League 2022

North Macedonia and Bulgaria will square off at the Philip II Arena in Skopje in UEFA Nations League Group C4 action on Monday (September 26).

The visitors head into their final group clash after claiming their first group victory as they look to close out their campaign on a high.

Meanwhile, North Macedonia’s hopes of securing promotion came to an end on Friday following a 2-0 loss against Georgia at the Boris Paichadze Dinamo Arena.

They have now lost two of their last three games, with a 4-0 victory over Gibraltar on June 12 interspersed between the two defeats. With seven points from five games, North Macedonia are second in Group C4, six points off first-placed Georgia.

Meanwhile, Bulgaria picked up their first win of their campaign last time out, seeing Gibraltar 5-1 at home.

Before that, they were on an eight-game winless run, losing four and picking up four draws since October 2021. Bulgaria are third in the group standings, picking up six points from a possible 15.

North Macedonia vs Bulgaria Head-To-Head

With four wins from their last eight meetings, Bulgaria hold a superior record in this fixture. North Macedonia have picked up two wins in this period, while two games have ended all square.

North Macedonia Form Guide (all competitions): L-W-L-W-D

Bulgaria Form Guide (all competiitons): W-D-D-L-D

North Macedonia vs Bulgaria Team News

North Macedonia

Stefan Ristovski, Arijan Ademi, Darko Churlinov and Valon Ethemi are out of the squad due to injury and will not feature against Bulgaria.

Injured: Stefan Ristovski, Arijan Ademi, Darko Churlinov, Valon Ethemi

Doubtful: None

Suspended: None

Unavailable: None

Bulgaria

Following their victory against Gibraltar last time out, manager Mladen Krstajic could name an unchanged starting XI for this game.

Injured: None

Doubtful: None

Suspended: None

Unavailable: None

North Macedonia vs Bulgaria Predicted XIs

North Macedonia (4-4-2): Stole Dimitrievski; Gjoko Zajkov, Darko Velkovski, Visar Musliu, Ezgjan Alioski; Stefan Askovski, Enis Bardhi, Stefan Spirovski, Eljif Elmas; Bojan Miovski, Aleksandr Trajkovski

Bulgaria (3-4-3): Daniel Naumov; Petko Hristov, Valentin Antov, Anton Nedyalkov; Ivan Turitsov, Ilia Gruev, Filip Krastev, Marin Petkov; Kiril Despodov, Iliyan Stefanov, Radoslav Kirilov

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North Macedonia vs Bulgaria Prediction

Buoyed by their emphatic victory over Gibraltar, Bulgaria will head into this game with their confidence sky-high. While they have struggled to secure results on the road, they could do just enough to see off an inconsistent North Macedonia team.

Prediction: North Macedonia 1-2 Bulgaria