Gradiska Plazha

The ground sits on the shore of Lake Ohrid, next to the municipal beach that gave it its name — Gradska Plaža, and in Albanian Stadiumi Plazhi i Qytetit. Struga is a small place, and this is where its football happens.

What the ground does not have in size it has made up for in the number of clubs that have passed through it. FC Struga and FK Karaorman both call it home, and before them FK Vlaznimi and Labunishta used it too. That has meant a fixture list assembled from several directions at once: Second League football, cup ties, and then something the beachside ground was never built for.

In July 2024 the pitch by the lake staged a UEFA Europa Conference League qualifier, FC Struga against FC Pyunik. European nights on a natural grass surface a short walk from the water, in a town better known to visitors for the lake than for its football — the contrast is the point. The stadium had gone from a municipal ground to a venue on a continental draw sheet without changing what it is.

It is worth saying plainly that the ground is in Struga, on the south-western edge of North Macedonia, and not in the capital. The name has caused confusion with a beach project in Skopje, and the two have nothing to do with one another. The football one is by the lake.