That fact which teams appears to be stronger rarely matters when best Macedonian teams Vardar and Metalurg meet on SEHA courts. Matches are every time full of uncertainty until the very end with whole lot of pressure coming from the stands towards the court. The clash is scheduled for Saturday (17.45 CET) in Boris Trajkovski sports hall.

As we all know, Vardar are entering the season as both SEHA - Gazprom and Champions League champions. However, even during that amazing season, team from Avtokomanda has managed to beat them in domestic championship but that was unfortunately for their fans not enough to win the title. Cervar has a team full of young and inexperienced players but also a team which has everything needed to put in great amount of work each time they step out on the court.

It is still not clear whether Luka Cindric, Rogerio Moraes and Dainis Kristopans who are complaining about injuries will play on Saturday, especially after Super Globe tournament which appeared to be quite exhausting for the team. SEHA - Gazprom League tradition however clearly points in Vardar’s direction with ‘Red&Black’ triumphing seven times in their previous eleven matches. Last Metalurg’s win against Vardar dates all the way back to December 2014.

Lino Cervar, Metalurg coach:
First of all I want to congratulate Vardar on winning the EHF Champions League. They are absolute favorites in this match but we’ll do our best to show what we’ve got. I believe there is no real need to spend time talking about how good Vardar is but we’re on the other side a young, ambitious team eager to prove our worth. We have to focus and give all we’ve got, that’s the only way. 

Filip Kuzmanovski, Metalurg player:
We’ll have an honor to open the season against European champions. We’ve worked well during the pre-season and I think we’re all set and ready for upcoming challenges. We are a young team as coach said, eager to prove our worth but of course we’ll need support from our fans for something bigger.  

Raul Gonzalez, Vardar coach:
It will not be easy. New season will be very hard for us because when you win everything, it is very difficult to defend the title. We are the champions and we must prepare well for every match. However, the season is long and we slowly need to focus on what is ahead of us. The first official match is always hard, especially because Metalurg is our big rival. They always play good against us and I am sure they will not make an exception this time either. I do not have much information about the new team of Metalurg with only friendly matches being played so far and you can’t see much from those. Considering our team, three or four players are still dealing with injuries and we’re still not sure whether they’ll play on Saturday. We’ll know everything after our final training session.

Stojance Stoilov, Vardar player:
I think this season did not start very well, but we are SEHA and European champions and we need to start behaving like that. We are among the favorites for winning the SEHA Gazprom league this season, but that does not mean a thing unless we prove that on the court.  Metalurg have some new players in the roster and we don’t know much about them yet. However, we always have whole lot of respect for them as our rivals knowing that our matches are almost always full of uncertainty. This surely is a special match with an additional amount of pressure.