Belgium will kick off their World Cup 2026 qualifying bid when they travel to Skopje for Friday's meeting with North Macedonia.
The hosts are already two games into their qualifying campaign, having beaten Liechtenstein and drawn with Wales over the first couple of matchdays.
Match preview
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North Macedonia are dreaming of reaching their first-ever World Cup finals, with their only previous major tournament appearance taking place at Euro 2020.
They carried significant momentum into their 2026 qualifying campaign after they collected 16 points from six matches in the UEFA Nations League to win promotion from League C in the final few months of 2024.
North Macedonia picked up from where they left off to kick off World Cup qualifying bid with a commanding 3-0 home win over Liechtenstein in March.
However, they were denied another victory in their meeting with Wales, as Bojan Miovski saw his 91st-minute effort cancelled out by David Brooks' 96th-minute equaliser in a dramatic 1-1 draw, leaving North Macedonia level on four points with the Dragons in Group J.
While they missed out on a precious victory, the result did at least extend their unbeaten run to eight matches, meaning that they have gone a year since losing to the Czech Republic in a friendly in June 2024.
In fact, they have not lost a competitive match since they fell to a 5-2 defeat to Italy in Euro 2024 qualifying in November 2023, but they will be aware that their impressive unbeaten run could be put under threat by a Belgium team that are in eighth place in the FIFA world rankings - 59 places higher than North Macedonia.
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Rudi Garcia took over the reins as Belgium boss earlier this year after Domenico Tedesco was sacked following poor results at Euro 2024 and in the 2024-25 Nations League.
After failing to make it past the last 16 of the European Championships, the Red Devils went on to finish in the relegation playoff spot in their Nations League group following four defeats in six matches in Group A2
Garcia began his tenure with a 3-1 loss in the playoff tie against Ukraine, before he oversaw a 3-0 victory in the return leg to maintain Belgium's record of being a League A team in all editions of the Nations League.
The Frenchman will now be focusing on Belgium's bid to reach a fourth consecutive World Cup, with the Red Devils the favourites to win a qualifying group that features North Macedonia, Wales, Kazakhstan and Liechtenstein.
Having struggled in recent away trips, Belgium will travel to the North Macedonian capital with hopes of claiming their first away win since beating Austria 3-2 in Euro 2024 qualifying in October 2023.
The visitors can take confidence from the fact that they have won three of their four meetings with North Macedonia (D1), including their previous two away encounters, recording a 5-0 victory in European Championship qualifying in June 1995 and a 2-0 win in World Cup qualifying in March 2013.
Team News
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Valencia's Stole Dimitrievski should feature between the posts, with the goalkeeper likely to be shielded by a back three of Gjoko Zajkov, Visar Musliu and Jovan Manev.
Enis Bardhi will captain his country in Friday's contest, and he will offer one of the main attacking threats as the third-highest scorer in North Macedonian history.
Girona striker Miovski will feature up front for the hosts, having scored five goals in his last seven international appearances.
As for the visitors, they are unable to call upon Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, who recently pulled out of the squad with a back problem.
While Club Brugge's Nordin Jackers has replaced Courtois in the squad, Nottingham Forest's Matz Sels appears to be the most likely candidate to start Friday's friendly.
Fresh from winning Serie A with Napoli, Romelu Lukaku will be looking to add to his 88-goal international tally when he leads the line on Friday.
North Macedonia possible starting lineup:
Dimitrievski; Zajkov, Musliu, Manev; Ilievski, Alimi, Kostadinov, Alioski; Bardhi; Miovski, Elmas
Belgium possible starting lineup:
Sels; Meunier, Faes, Debast, De Cuyper; De Bruyne, Onana, Tielemans; Trossard, Doku, Lukaku
We say: North Macedonia 1-2 Belgium
North Macedonia may be enjoying an eight-game unbeaten run, but a meeting with Belgium still represents a sizeable task for Friday's hosts, and we believe that the visitors will ultimately have the extra quality required to pick up a narrow victory.
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