Belarus get the better of FYR Macedonia

• Belarus come from behind to win at FYR Macedonia
• Aleksandar Trajkovski shoots home team into early lead (9)
• Timofei Kalachev's curling effort brings Belarus level (44)
• Sergei Kornilenko's late goal gives visitors first Group C victory (82)
• Next games: Slovakia v FYR Macedonia, Belarus v Spain (14 June)

Belarus recovered from a goal down to record their first victory in UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying Group C, getting the better of FYR Macedonia thanks to Sergei Kornilenko's late clincher.

Having taken just three points from their first four fixtures, the home team needed an early lift and they got precisely that through Aleksandar Trajkovski. Daniel Georgievski came inside from the left and played the ball into Agim Ibraimi, who moved it on quickly to Trajkovski. The No7 turned cleverly and fired in a smart low shot from 20 metres for his second goal of the qualification campaign.

Belarus had collected a single point from their first four outings, scoring only twice, and duly struggled to get back into the contest, although they did the majority of the pressing for the remainder of the first half.

With a minute of it remaining, they got their reward when Aleksandr Hleb drew three defenders before prodding a pass through to Timofei Kalachev, who curled a fine first-time effort into the corner of the net.

Both goalkeepers were called into action early in the second period, FYR Macedonia's Tome Pacovski producing particularly fine blocks to deny Kornilenko and Igor Stasevich.

The home keeper also repelled Kornilenko's fierce low strike with his legs in the closing stages and made another excellent save at Anton Putilo's feet with eight minutes left. He could not hold on forever, though, and Kornilenko forced the loose ball beyond Pacovski to take the points to Belarus.