FYR Macedonia vs 03.10.26 18:450 – 2Full Time
Scotland — UEFA Nations League: stats, lineups & analysis
Match report
Scotland win away at FYR Macedonia in UEFA Nations League
Scotland secured a 2-0 win away to FYR Macedonia in UEFA Nations League League B - 3, played at Nacional Arena Todor Proeski. Kieran Bowie opened the scoring in the seventh minute, assisted by Billy Gilmour, and that single-goal advantage held at half-time.
AI-assisted match report written from official match data.
John McGinn doubled the visitors' lead from the penalty spot in the 69th minute to make it 2-0. FYR Macedonia's afternoon worsened in the closing stages when Scott McKenna saw red in the 83rd minute, though that card fell against the away side rather than the hosts. The scoreline remained 0-2 through to the final whistle.
Despite FYR Macedonia holding more of the ball, with 56 percent possession to Scotland's 44, it was Scotland who dominated territorially where it mattered, firing 25 shots to the hosts' 9 and forcing 10 on target compared with none for FYR Macedonia. The result leaves FYR Macedonia without a win in their last five fixtures, while Scotland sit third in League B · Group 1 with four points from three matches.
John McGinn scored the decisive second goal from the penalty spot and finished with a match-best rating of 7.8, just ahead of goalscorer Kieran Bowie and provider Billy Gilmour.
Scotland's 10 shots on target against FYR Macedonia's none underlined how clinical the visitors were in front of goal.
Scotland won 2–0 away against FYR Macedonia (half-time 0–1).
FYR Macedonia met Scotland in the UEFA Nations League (League B - 3). Kick-off was Saturday, 3 October 2026, 18:45 UTC at Nacional Arena Todor Proeski. Referee: Francois Letexier.
Team pages: FYR Macedonia · Scotland · UEFA Nations League
Key moments
- 7' Goal: Kieran Bowie (assist: Billy Gilmour) — 0–1 · Watch Kieran Bowie's goal video (7')
- 69' Goal (penalty): John McGinn — 0–2 · Watch John McGinn's goal video (69')
- 83' Red card: Scott McKenna
Starting line-ups
FYR Macedonia (3-4-2-1)
Scotland (3-4-2-1)
Sirius · Why these numbers
Before kick-off Sirius gave FYR Macedonia 25%, the draw 24%, Scotland 51%. It finished FYR Macedonia 0–2 Scotland.
Scotland's rating gap outweighs FYR Macedonia's home ground — Scotland are clearly the stronger side on our strength rating, and that is most of Scotland's 51%. The draw at 24% is about what a gap this size usually leaves.
Why Scotland at 51%?
Scotland sit 189 points higher on our strength rating — 1554 to 1743. Sides with a 160–240-point rating edge on the road won 50.6% of 6,703 such games. The 300 most similar past games finished 26–24–50.
Why only 51%?
No scored evidence points the other way. 51% is what this rating gap has been worth in games like these; the rest is the draw at 24% and FYR Macedonia at 25%.
Why the draw at 24%?
With a rating gap this size the draw starts at 25.1%. These teams' recent games average 2.8 goals — a typical goals environment. Games in that environment drew 24.8% of 25,087.
What did we measure but not count?
FYR Macedonia are 2 games into a new manager (G. Sedloski), appointed 32 days ago. The famous new-manager bounce doesn't survive its receipt: sides with a new manager beat their rating by 0.9 points over 33,420 games — but sides on an equally bad run who kept their manager beat it by 2.4 over 31,777. FYR Macedonia (11 fully-tracked matches with us) and Scotland (14) carry strength ratings anchored to the official international ratings list, so the class read stands on far more than our own short records. National sides play too few games for a record built from scratch, so their rating chain starts from the published international ratings instead of a blind first guess.
Sirius probabilities, frozen at kick-off. Analysis, not betting advice. How Sirius is doing this season · Full breakdown, evidence cards and squad news in the Match Insights tab
About this match
On this page: the FYR Macedonia vs Scotland final score and result, goal highlights and video clips of every goal, who scored, starting lineups, match stats and the full match report from this UEFA Nations League fixture.
- Who scored and when — a goal-by-goal timeline of the match.
- Match stats — possession, shots, expected goals (xG), corners and cards.
- Starting lineups and player ratings for both teams.
- Head-to-head record and recent form for both sides.
- Watch Kieran Bowie's goal against FYR Macedonia (7').
- Watch John McGinn's goal against FYR Macedonia (69').
Watch the goals: goal highlights and video clips of every goal from FYR Macedonia 0–2 Scotland. Explore more on the FYR Macedonia and Scotland team pages or the UEFA Nations League page.