Israel hold on for welcome win

Israel withstood a second-half barrage to hold on to an invaluable 2-1 victory against F.Y.R. Macedonia in Skopje and keep in touch with the frontrunners in Group E.

Dream debut
The game appeared to be going to plan for the visitors when striker Barak Itzhaki struck eleven minutes into his senior international debut, rising well to head in Idan Tal's right-wing cross. However, F.Y.R. Macedonia have taken seven points from their previous three UEFA EURO 2008™ fixtures and were soon back on level terms as Aco Stojkov lashed in Goran Pandev's left-wing free-kick. Needing a win to stay in contention for qualifying Dror Kashtan's team immediately went on the offensive, with the lively Itzhaki testing home goalkeeper Jane Nikoloski.

Colautti strike
It was an older head that eventually restored the advantage, as Roberto Colautti headed in another Tal cross just before the interval to leave the home side on the back foot. They could have fallen further behind soon after the restart when Nikoloski fumbled a corner but his mistake were unpunished and Israel spent much of the remainder of the match on the back foot. Substitute Stevica Ristic contrived to head wide from close range before Dudu Awat was called upon to keep out efforts from Aleksandar Vasoski and Vlatko Grozdanovski as F.Y.R. Macedonia piled forward.

Late pressure
Grozdanovski did beat the goalkeeper as the match moved into the final quarter only for defender Yoav Ziv clear off the line. An equaliser looked a matter of time and Darko Tasevski almost got it with an injury-time header which flew over Awat's crossbar – it summed up the home team's evening and they remain fifth in the section. Israel leapfrog England into third and will be hoping for another three points when they travel to Andorra on Wednesday.