{"id":297659,"date":"2023-11-20T23:24:59","date_gmt":"2023-11-20T23:24:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tellmysport.com\/?p=297659"},"modified":"2023-11-20T23:24:59","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T23:24:59","slug":"the-notebook-skopje-pitch-concerns-were-justified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tellmysport.com\/soccer\/the-notebook-skopje-pitch-concerns-were-justified\/","title":{"rendered":"THE NOTEBOOK: Skopje pitch concerns were justified"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>THE NOTEBOOK: England&#8217;s Skopje pitch concerns were justified, coins and keys were confiscated at the gate &#8211; and Kyle Walker became Gareth Southgate&#8217;s 12th captain&#8230; but can you name the other 11?<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>North Macedonia 1-1 England: Three Lions end Euro 2024 qualifying unbeaten<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Enis Bardhi scores rebound after penalty save but England level with own goal<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Trent and Bellingham can play together but can&#8217;t get in each other\u2019s way &#8211;\u00a0IAKO\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>England suffered a frustrating conclusion to their Euro 2024 qualifying campaign as they were held to a scrappy 1-1 draw by North Macedonia in Group C on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>With qualification long since secured and just a draw needed to seal a top seeding for next year&#8217;s finals, England trailed to Enis Bardhi&#8217;s 41st-minute rebound effort after his penalty was saved.<\/p>\n<p>Gareth Southgate&#8217;s group winners hogged possession but lacked fluency and invention against dogged hosts and needed an own goal by Jani Atanasov to get them level on the hour.<\/p>\n<p>Jack Grealish had earlier seen a goal ruled out while teenager Rico Lewis had a debut he will want to forget after harshly being penalised for North Macedonia&#8217;s penalty.<\/p>\n<p>Mail Sport&#8217;s Craig Hope\u00a0covers some of the talking points that you may have missed from the Skopje encounter.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/20\/22\/78039139-0-image-a-16_1700518316020.jpg\" height=\"424\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>England midfielder Declan Rice twice came unstuck on a pudding of a pitch in Skopje<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/20\/22\/78039689-12772817-image-a-25_1700519358484.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Kyle Walker became the 12th players to be named captain by England boss Gareth Southgate<\/p>\n<h2>Rice comes unstuck<\/h2>\n<p>Much was made of the state of the newly-laid pitch on the eve of the game. Turns out the concerns were justified.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Twice early on Declan Rice peered down at gaping divots and shook his head after losing the ball.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>At least the dressing-room floor had no holes in it, which was not the case here in 2003, when the likes of David Beckham and Wayne Rooney &#8211; scorers in a 2-1 win &#8211; had to get changed on a rota basis because of the damaged away-team quarters.<\/p>\n<h2>Southgate&#8217;s 12 captains<\/h2>\n<p>No England manager has named more captains than Gareth Southgate, and Kyle Walker was his 12th (the 126th in total).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Stop reading now and see if you can name Southgate\u2019s dozen before we do\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span>Wayne Rooney, Gary Cahill, Joe Hart, Jordan Henderson, Harry Kane, Eric Dier, Fabian Delph, Raheem Sterling, Kieran Trippier, Harry Maguire, Marcus Rashford and Walker.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Honour for &#8216;Elvis of the Balkans&#8217;<\/h2>\n<p>The National Arena Todor Proeski is named after one of Macedonia\u2019s greatest musical exports.\u00a0Sadly, Todor Proeski &#8211; known as \u2018The Elvis Presley of the Balkans\u2019 &#8211; was killed in a car crash aged just 26 in 2007.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The re-naming of the national stadium in his honour displaced King Philip II, father of Alexander the Great.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And such was the affection for Proeski here, he was even given a state funeral.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/20\/22\/78039105-0-image-a-7_1700518189008.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>England supporters were forced to give up their coins and keys at the gate on Monday night<\/p>\n<h2>England fans out of pocket\u00a0<\/h2>\n<p>England fans found that all coins were confiscated at the gate.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>That may seem harsh, until you consider that even two pocketfuls of change could only be worth a maximum of five pounds &#8211; 70 denar equates to \u00a31 and, in three days here, I\u2019m yet to see a coin of any more than 20 denar.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Keys were also taken from supporters. Now that could be more problematic, especially as many were staying in local Air BnB properties.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>With temperatures dipping to 2C at kick-off, you wouldn\u2019t fancy a night on the streets either, not with the packs of stray dogs for company.<\/p>\n<h3>IT&#8217;S ALL KICKING OFF!\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p><span><span>It&#8217;s All Kicking Off is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span>It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12772817\/THE-NOTEBOOK-Skopje-pitch-concerns-justified-Kyle-Walker-Englands-12th-captain-Gareth-Southgate-11.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>THE NOTEBOOK: England&#8217;s Skopje pitch concerns were justified, coins and keys were confiscated at the gate &#8211; and Kyle Walker became Gareth Southgate&#8217;s 12th captain&#8230; but can you name the other 11? North Macedonia 1-1 England: Three Lions end Euro 2024 qualifying unbeaten Enis Bardhi scores rebound after penalty save but England level with own&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297658,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>THE NOTEBOOK: Skopje pitch concerns were justified - Tell My Sport<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tellmysport.com\/soccer\/the-notebook-skopje-pitch-concerns-were-justified\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"THE NOTEBOOK: Skopje pitch concerns were justified - Tell My Sport\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"THE NOTEBOOK: England&#8217;s Skopje pitch concerns were justified, coins and keys were confiscated at the gate &#8211; and Kyle Walker became Gareth Southgate&#8217;s 12th captain&#8230; but can you name the other 11? 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