Vardar have with a second home win in just two weeks against PPD Zagreb managed to prolong their winning streak and reach fifth SEHA Gazprom win this season. After a CL win 15 days ago (28:21) they were on Tuesday once again better than multiple Croatian champions - this time with 30:23 (17:10). Stipe Mandalinic scored 8 for Zagreb, Tin Kontrec added 4 while on the other side Timur Dibirov and Igor Karacic scored 6 each, Vuko Borozan added 5, Mijajlo Marsenic netted 4. On top of all that Strahinja Milic had 14 saves plus two denied 7-meter shots.
Only 25 minutes were enough for hosts to decide everything sealing the deal in this one reaching 7-goal advantage (17:10) before the half time whistle. Despite of the fact they were playing without Stojance Stoilov, Rogerio Moraes and Daniil Shishkarev, the only reason why home team did not decide the match even earlier were their own technical mistakes and missed opportunities.
In the second half "Lions" were able to cut the lead to 4 in a few occasions but winner was never questionable giving coach Gonzales a chance to give some of his younger talents like Nedanovski, Popovski, Vojvodic or Gjorgjevski a chance to show what they`re capable of. The final score was 30:23.
Vardar coach Raul Gonzales said: "PPD Zagreb are always highly motivated against us but my players did a good job today. First 15 minutes were a problem for us - their defense was strong and we were simply unable to find a path to their goal. In last 10 minutes of the first we simply scored some easy goals enlarging the gap to a bigger lead than was actually deserved. In the second they`ve managed to cut our lead but our goalies Milic and Gjorgeski luckily caught momentum keeping us safe all the way until the final whistle."
"Games against Zagreb are always special because they have highly skilled roster. We`ve lost a lot of energy in the match against Barcelona to be honest. By that we have some injured players and that was the reason why we needed some time to adapt, enter the match properly and start playing on the required level. I think we deserved to win this", Vardar player Vlado Nedanovski added.
"Congrats to Vardar and their coach. Both teams committed many technical mistakes throughout the first half but they made a bit less and enlarged the gap in first 30. Second half was better from our side but it is hard to turn things around against such a team like Vardar", said Zagreb player Ton Kontrec, who scored four times.
Zagreb coach Kasim Kamenica was dossapointed: "We played our EHF CL match on Thursday while they played their on Saturday which was somehow an opportunity for us to enter the match better rested, maybe even better prepared. However, despite of that, first half was a complete opposite of what we expected with Vardar being 7 goals up after first 30. It was our worst outing of the season. Second half was better, we`ve improved a bit but in the end a clear victory for Vardar.
