Soccer-Macedonia name Serb Drulovic as new coach

SKOPJE April 23 (Reuters) - Macedonia have named former Yugoslavia winger Ljubinko Drulovic as their new coach on a 2-1/2 year contract, the Balkan nation's football federation (FFM) said on Thursday. Drulovic, who won five Portuguese league titles and four cups with Porto before moving to traditional rivals Benfica, replaced Bosko Gjurovski who was sacked earlier this month. "The decision to appoint Drulovic was made on the basis of the FFM's criteria envisaging higher expectations and better results from the national team in the ongoing Euro 2016 qualifiers," the body said on its website (www.ffm.mk). The 46-year old, who had a brief coaching stint with Serbia as caretaker last year following their failure to qualify for the 2014 World Cup, promised he would work hard to lift Macedonia out of the doldrums. "I am honoured to have been put in charge and will do everything I can to live up to expectations," said Drulovic, who guided Serbia's Under-19 side to a shock European Championship triumph in 2013. "We have five challenging Euro 2016 qualifiers left and while no one can guarantee success, my intention is to build a team with strong character capable of making Macedonia a respectable soccer nation." The Macedonians have only a slim chance of reaching Euro 2016 after one win and four defeats in their opening five games left them fifth in Group C, 12 points behind leaders Slovakia. (Writing by Zoran Milosavljevic in Belgrade; editing by Pritha Sarkar)