Shkëndija Tetovo — Bashkimi Kumanovo: 4:1, First League

Shkendija Tetovo beat Bashkimi Kumanovo 4-1 at home in the First League's eighth round on Friday. The hosts opened the scoring through F. Ndzengue in the sixteenth minute, then doubled their advantage before half-time when F. Ismaili struck. A. Kryeziu added a third just before the break with a forty-fifth-minute plus-two goal, putting the visitors in trouble early.

Bashkimi pulled one back late in the second half through A. Trumci in the eighty-seventh minute, but F. Tamba had already silenced any hopes with a seventy-first-minute strike. Three yellow cards were shown during the match — at fifty-seven minutes, sixty-five minutes and eighty minutes — though no dismissals occurred. The visitors never really threatened after falling behind.

Both sides shared possession evenly at fifty percent each, with Shkendija registering seventy-five attacks to Bashkimi's seventy-four. Not a single corner was awarded to either team, which says something about the nature of this encounter. The statistics don't tell the whole story of a match decided by moments rather than sustained pressure.

Shkendija sit top of the table with sixteen points from seven games, having won five, drawn once and lost once. Their recent form has been mixed — a 2-2 draw with Aresimi followed by a 1-3 defeat to Tikvesh — but this result extends their momentum. They took the three points when it mattered most.

Bashkimi remain in ninth place with just four points from seven matches, recording one win, one draw and five losses. Their last five results show inconsistency: a 3-3 draw with Vardar, a 5-0 victory over Konjari, then a 2-1 win against Skopje before two defeats. The gap between the two sides on the table tells its own story.