North Macedonia sealed a World Cup qualifying play-off spot with a 3-1 home win over Iceland on Sunday that secured them the runners-up spot in Group J, with midfielder Eljif Elmas scoring twice in the second half.
The North Macedonians finished their qualifying campaign on 18 points from 10 games, one ahead of third-placed Romania who ground out a 2-0 win in Lichtenstein.
Ezgjan Alioski was instrumental as he scored the home side's seventh-minute opener in Skopje and had a hand in the second after Jon Thorsteinsson had levelled for Iceland. Forward Darko Churlinov had a goal scrapped for a marginal offside for North Macedonia in the 40th minute after a VAR check, and the technology gave the visitors a break shortly after the restart.
They got their reward in the 65th minute, when Elmas bundled the ball in from a goal-mouth scramble after Iceland goalkeeper Elias Rafn Olafsson parried Alioski's deflected shot and the visiting defence failed to clear the ball.
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