2018–19 Macedonian First Football League

The 2018–19 Macedonian First League was the 27th season of the Macedonian First Football League, the highest football league of North Macedonia (before 12 February Macedonia). It began on 11 August 2018 and ended on 26 May 2019. Each team played the other sides four times on home-away basis, for a total of 36 matches. Shkëndija were the defending champions, having won their second title in 2017–18.

Macedonian First League

Season	2018–19
Dates	11 August 2018 – 26 May 2019
Champions	Shkëndija 3rd domestic title
Relegated	Belasica Pobeda
Champions League	Shkëndija
Europa League	Akademija Pandev Makedonija G.P. Shkupi
Matches played	180
Goals scored	440 (2.44 per match)
Top goalscorer	Vlatko Stojanovski (18 goals)
Biggest home win	Renova 9–1 Pobeda (4 May 2019)
Biggest away win	Belasica 1–4 Makedonija G.P. (10 November 2018) Renova 0–3 Shkëndija (2 December 2018)
Highest scoring	Renova 9–1 Pobeda (4 May 2019)
Longest winning run	7 games Shkëndija
Longest unbeaten run	13 games Vardar
Longest winless run	15 games Pobeda
Longest losing run	7 games Pobeda
← 2017–18 2019–20 → All statistics correct as of 26 May 2019.

Promotion and relegation

At the end of the 2017–18 season Promoted from 2017–18 Second League Belasica (Winners; East) Makedonija G.P. (Winners; West) Relegated to 2018–19 Second League Skopje (9th) Pelister (10th)

At the end of the 2018–19 season Promoted from 2018–19 Second League Borec (Winners; East) Struga (Winners; West) Relegated to 2019–20 Second League Belasica (9th) Pobeda (10th)

Participating teams

Skopje

Shkëndija

Pobeda

Renova

Sileks

A. Pandev
Belasica

Skopje clubs:

Makedonija
Rabotnički
Shkupi
Vardar

Location of teams in 2018–19 Macedonian First League

Akademija Pandev	Belasica	Makedonija G.P.	Pobeda
Kukuš Stadium	Blagoj Istatov Stadium	Gjorče Petrov Stadium	Stadion Goce Delchev
Capacity: 1,500	Capacity: 9,200	Capacity: 3,000
Rabotnički Vardar	Renova Shkëndija	Shkupi	Sileks
Toše Proeski Arena[a] UEFA	Ecolog Arena	Chair Stadium	City Stadium Kratovo
Capacity: 36,460	Capacity: 15,000	Capacity: 6,000	Capacity: 4,800

1. The stadium was called Philip II Arena until 9 April 2019.

Personnel and kits

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Akademija Pandev	Jugoslav Trenchovski	Sashko Pandev	Givova
Belasica	Zdravko Zdravkov	Dragan Stojkov	Nike	Cosmopolit
Makedonija G.P.	Aleksandar Tanevski	Bobi Bozhinovski	Kappa	Evropa
Pobeda	Toni Meglenski	Darko Tofiloski	Jako	Krali Marko & Vitaminka
Rabotnički	Zhikica Tasevski	Blazhe Ilijoski	Joma	Seavus
Renova	Nikola Ilievski	Fisnik Nuhi	Jako	Renova
Shkëndija	Qatip Osmani	Armend Alimi	Macron	Ecolog
Shkupi	Ümit Karan	Muharem Bajrami	Kappa	ATS Group
Sileks	Momchilo Mitevski	Filip Duranski	Legea
Vardar	Aleksandar Vasoski	Goran Popov	Hummel	BetCity

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Shkëndija (C)	36	24	7	5	80	29	+51	79	Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round
2	Vardar	36	17	13	6	45	23	+22	64	Excluded from European competitions[a]
3	Akademija Pandev	36	17	7	12	45	35	+10	58	Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round
4	Shkupi	36	13	9	14	40	42	−2	48
5	Makedonija G.P.	36	12	11	13	45	50	−5	47
6	Renova	36	12	11	13	53	49	+4	47
7	Rabotnički	36	13	7	16	43	49	−6	46
8	Sileks (O)	36	11	11	14	27	39	−12	44	Qualification for the relegation play-off final
9	Belasica (R)	36	9	11	16	37	49	−12	38	Relegation to the Macedonian Second League
10	Pobeda (R)	36	6	5	25	26	76	−50	23

Source: MacedonianFootball.com
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Head-to-head points; 5) Head-to-head goal difference; 6) Head-to-head away goals scored (only if two teams); 7) Head-to-head goals scored; 8) Draw; 9) Play-off. (Note: Criteria 2, 3 and 8 is only used if not deciding Champion, teams for UEFA competitions or relegation).^{[citation needed]}
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Vardar failed to get the UEFA license for the competition due to financial problems.^[1]

Results

Each team played home-and-away against every other team in the league twice, for a total of 36 matches each.

Home \ Away	AKP	BEL	MGP	POB	RAB	REN	SKË	SKU	SIL	VAR	AKP	BEL	MGP	POB	RAB	REN	SKË	SKU	SIL	VAR
Akademija Pandev	—	3–0	2–1	2–1	1–0	0–2	0–0	1–0	3–0	0–0	—	0–2	3–0	4–0	3–1	2–1	0–1	0–2	2–0	1–1
Belasica	0–2	—	1–4	2–1	1–2	3–1	0–2	1–0	1–1	1–1	0–1	—	3–1	1–1	0–1	3–2	2–1	2–0	0–1	0–0
Makedonija G.P.	1–0	0–0	—	1–0	3–0	1–2	0–0	2–2	1–1	1–3	1–1	2–1	—	3–0	1–1	3–1	1–1	1–0	2–0	0–2
Pobeda	2–4	1–0	0–2	—	0–2	1–0	0–2	2–0	2–0	0–1	1–3	1–1	1–3	—	0–1	2–3	1–4	0–3	0–1	0–0
Rabotnički	1–0	1–1	5–1	3–1	—	3–4	1–2	0–2	2–1	0–2	1–2	1–1	2–0	1–2	—	1–1	0–1	1–2	1–1	0–2
Renova	1–1	0–2	1–1	2–1	0–2	—	0–3	2–0	1–1	0–1	2–2	3–2	0–0	9–1	1–2	—	3–2	1–0	1–0	4–0
Shkëndija	0–1	4–1	5–1	0–2	6–2	2–2	—	3–0	5–0	2–2	4–1	3–0	4–2	5–2	1–0	2–1	—	5–1	0–0	1–0
Shkupi	1–0	1–0	2–1	0–0	1–1	1–1	1–2	—	2–0	1–0	1–0	2–2	0–1	3–0	1–2	2–2	1–0	—	2–1	2–2
Sileks	1–0	1–0	1–1	0–0	2–0	1–0	1–2	1–1	—	0–1	3–0	2–1	1–1	1–0	1–0	0–0	0–3	2–2	—	1–0
Vardar	3–0	1–1	1–0	3–0	0–1	0–0	0–2	2–1	1–0	—	1–1	1–1	3–1	6–0	1–1	2–0	0–0	1–0	1–0	—

Source: MacedonianFootball.com
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Positions by round

The table lists the positions of teams after each week of matches. In order to preserve chronological evolvements, any postponed matches are not included to the round at which they were originally scheduled, but added to the full round they were played immediately afterwards.

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36
Shkëndija	4	6	4	3	2	2	3	3	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Vardar	5	2	2	4	3	3	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	3	2	3	3	3	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Akademija Pandev	2	1	1	2	1	1	2	2	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	2	3	2	2	2	2	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3
Shkupi	6	7	9	8	9	6	9	10	10	9	10	9	9	8	9	6	6	5	5	5	5	4	4	5	5	5	7	6	4	4	4	4	4	4	5	4
Makedonija G.P.	9	9	9	8	8	10	8	8	7	5	6	7	8	7	6	8	7	6	7	7	7	8	7	7	7	7	6	7	7	7	7	7	6	7	7	5
Renova	1	5	7	7	7	9	7	5	4	7	8	6	6	4	5	5	5	7	6	6	6	6	6	4	4	4	4	5	6	5	5	5	5	5	6	6
Rabotnički	8	4	3	1	4	4	5	6	6	4	5	4	5	6	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	5	5	6	6	6	5	4	5	6	6	6	7	6	4	7
Sileks	7	8	5	5	6	8	10	9	9	10	9	10	10	9	10	10	10	8	8	8	8	7	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8
Belasica	10	10	10	10	10	7	6	7	8	6	7	8	7	10	8	9	9	10	10	9	10	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9
Pobeda	3	3	6	6	5	5	4	4	5	8	4	5	4	5	7	7	8	9	9	10	9	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10

	Leader and qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round
	Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round
	Qualification for the Relegation play-off final
	Relegation to the Macedonian Second League

Source: macedonianfootball.com

Season statistics

Top scorers

As of 26 May 2019

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Vlatko Stojanovski	Renova	18
2	Ljupcho Doriev	Akademija Pandev	16
3	Izair Emini	Shkëndija	11
	Besart Ibraimi	Shkëndija
	Hristijan Kirovski	Makedonija G.P.
	Petar Petkovski	Rabotnički
	Emran Ramadani	Renova
8	Pepi Gorgiev	Belasica	9
	Dejan Tanturovski	Makedonija G.P.
10	Bobi Bozhinovski	Makedonija G.P.	8
	Boban Georgiev	Sileks
	Omar Imeri	Shkëndija
	Darko Micevski	Vardar

See also

• 2018–19 Macedonian Football Cup
• 2018–19 Macedonian Second Football League
• 2018–19 Macedonian Third Football League