Playoffs round-up: Serbia sink Norway as North Macedonia edge neighbours Kosovo

Serbia reached the Euro 2020 playoff finals after a double from second-half substitute Sergej-Milinkovic Savic gave them a 2-1 win away to Norway after extra-time in Oslo on Thursday.

Scotland will face the Serbians in Belgrade on November 12th for a berth at next year’s tournament to be held across Europe following a 5-3 penalty shoot-out win at home to Israel as the game finished 0-0 after extra time.

Serbia’s Lazio midfielder Milinkovic-Savic scored his first international goals as he fired the visitors ahead in the 82nd minute with his first touch of the ball.

Norway's Mathias Normann equalised in the 88th with a crisp low shot before Milinkovic-Savic struck in the first period of extra-time with a sublime finish, dinking the ball over goalkeeper Rune Jarstein from a tight angle.

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“I am still pinching myself as I scored my first goal for Serbia and then the second in a game as big as this one too,” Milinkovic-Savic told Serbian media.

“It will be a joyous trip back to Serbia but we know the job is not done yet and we’ve got an even bigger game ahead of us.”

Goals from Willi Orban, Zsolt Kalmar and Nemanja Nikolic earned Hungary a 3-1 win in Bulgaria and booked a home tie with Iceland, who were 2-1 winners at home to Romania thanks to Gylfi Sigurdsson's first-half double.

North Macedonia overcame Balkan neighbours Kosovo 2-1 and will visit Georgia, who beat Belarus 1-0 thanks to an early Tornike Okriashvili penalty, with the winners of their playoff set for a maiden major tournament as an independent nation.

There were joyous scenes in Skopje, where North Macedonia edged Kosovo in an emotionally charged encounter, with home coach Igor Angelovski rushing onto the field with a Macedonian flag after the final whistle.

Kosovo, a country of 1.8 million people which declared independence from Serbia in 2008, was accepted as a member of European soccer’s governing body Uefa, and then world soccer organisation Fifa, in 2016 after a long campaign.

They enjoyed a remarkable 15-match unbeaten run in 2018-19 to win their Nations League group and qualify for the playoffs, which offer a back door to the European Championship.