Luxembourg will need a miracle against North Macedonia in Euro 2028 qualifier

North Macedonia opens its European Championship qualifying campaign for 2028 with a home match against Luxembourg today, 4 November 2026, at 19:00 in the Boris Trajkovski Sports Center in Skopje.

Luxembourg arrive as heavy underdogs: they have never beaten North Macedonia in six previous meetings and only for the third time in their history have progressed to the second phase of the qualifiers. The Euro 2028 final tournament will be staged across Portugal, Spain and Switzerland.

Underdog coach and pragmatic goals

The Luxembourg side is coached by French handball great Didier Dinart, who openly acknowledges his team are outsiders in the group that also includes Greece and Sweden. Dinart insisted the priority is to execute the match plan and use the game as part of a longer rebuilding process.

"My expectations for the match against North Macedonia are, above all, that we stick to the game plan we worked on during the preparations and give our best, especially considering that the team has not been together all year. Now it is important to build our team identity, take lessons from this experience and move forward towards our short-term, medium-term and long-term goals," Dinart said. His squad will remain in Skopje until Friday, after which they will travel to Sweden.

For North Macedonia, the fixture is the first step on a campaign that will test squad depth and form ahead of games with Greece and Sweden. Home advantage and previous head-to-head success give the hosts the clear favourites tag.

Kick-off is scheduled for 19:00 local time; supporters will be watching to see whether Luxembourg can produce the kind of upset Dinart described, or whether North Macedonia will record another win in the fixture list between the two nations.

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