Swansea City v FK Vardar : Saturday match day friendly
Saturday, 27th Jul 2024 10:10 by Swansea Independent

Swansea City play their second and final friendly of their training camp week today at 12 noon against FK Vardar Skopje from North Macedonia. The game will be played at the Sportzentrum Friedberg (Aus) and according to the stadium match day tickets are available pre match.

FK Vardar have faced opposition from Wales before when the played Barry Town in 2003 in European competition, in a Champions League qualifier no less. They are in the Macedonian ‘First League’ last taking the title in the 2019/20 season. Their stadium holds 36,000 and the support base (see below) is fanatical. They are considered the best supported team in the country, not that there is any expectation of an Austrian invasion today.

The head coach is Gorazd Mihajlov, he had an uninspiring football career but did play for the Yugoslavian U19 side and Macedonia U21. At nearly fifty years of age and from Skopje he is only too aware that this season must bring with it better times. In their biography they are described as a team that is known for their attacking style of play and talented players who have gone on to represent their national team. Vardar Skopje continues to be a dominant force in North Macedonian football, consistently competing for top honours in the league and cup competitions.

That may as well be but last season the club returned disappointing results.

The final ‘First League’ table last season ended like this.

FK Vardar won only five games in their run in to the end of last season. That wasn’t good enough. However, you have to give them some grace as they were only promoted again via a ‘Second League’ play off at the end of the 2022/23 season. They defeated FK Detonit Plachkovica, 2-0.

There is no reference to a LIVE stream on the game today, but as we did on Wednesday if one is found we will find it.

This will be a test for the Swans today with Andy Fisher withdrawn earlier than planned during the game on Wednesday against FC Köln. Then there’s Josh Ginnelly still receiving treatment in Swansea and Mykola Kukharevych who remains a mysterious figure. He’s either injured, training, missing or just ignored and whatever the story is this current Swans squad seems pretty much in need of some serious upgrades.

There is talk of two players by the end of next week, and you would hope at least one is a striker. And there’s also talk of two potential players leaving. We will keep the site updated of course on all Swansea City news. You can be sure of that.