Tradition continues – NEXE leaves Skopje with points
Традицијата продолжува: Нексе заминува од Скопје со бодови
NEXE have once again managed to reach points playing away in Skopje. This time they will take one point back to Nasice after 25:25 draw versus Metalurg in their first encounter of the season. Croatian vice-champions were close to taking full bags from Macedonian capital this time leading with 6 goals twice throughout the duel (18:12 and 19:13).
NEXE will this way remain a ‘dark horse’ opponent for Metalurg taking points three times in their last five encounters. Guests were able to stay in control of the match from the first minute having excellent Perica Lelic between posts with 14 saves. It was clear that NEXE’s players are highly motivated to take points in this duel and end Metalurg’s winning streak.
Despite of the fact that NEXE was controlling the match fans were in the end given a chance to see a thriller finish with Milos Dragas scoring for 23:23. Hosts have even had a chance to win the match. Marko Neloski has taken responsibility but his shot went over the bar.
Lino
Cervar, Metalurg coach:
Draw is a real result speaking of this match. I
am a little angry on my team. We were not fully focused already having our
minds set towards future challenges. We have two difficult matches ahead of us
- against Tatran Presov and Chehovskie Medvedi. Despite of that, we can’t play
one match good and then be relaxed in the next one.
Martin
Velkovski, Metalurg player:
We’ve managed to motivate ourselves after a poor
first half. We’ve even had a chance to score winning goal but unfortunately
missed. I’m not sure if this was due to fatigue. We have a tough match against
Tatran ahead of us and we have to focus on it.
Zdenko
Kordi, NEXE coach:
Our rival is a very quality team but also tired.
It was one of the reasons for our good game during the bigger part of the
match. We’ve managed to use their mistakes and enlarge the gap but failed to
hold on to it until the end. Every point is important for us.
Mislav
Nenadic, NEXE player:
We’ve played a tough game, as expected. We would
take a draw before this match any time. However, now we are a bit disappointed
because we were better throughout the bigger part of the match but we’ve made
some mistakes in attack and as a result we’ve lost what should have been our
win.