In the first match of the eleventh SEHA – Gazprom League season, Nexe managed to stun five-time champions Vardar 1961 in their Jane Sandaski sports hall with Predrag Vejin scoring the decisive goal in their 25:24 away win. Croatian vice-champions have that way managed to make yet another statement of their ambitions for the season in which they will be aiming for the Final 4 tournament.

Guests opened the match much better storming off to a three-goal lead (3:6) ten minutes into the encounter. Macedonians managed to find the right rhythm later in the first narrowing the gap to one through Patryk Walczak (10:11) with less than five minutes left on the clock before the break. However, after the first half, the result was 11:13 for Croatian vice-champions.

Stojance Stoilov and Timur Dibirov scored first two goals of the second half levelling the game at 13:13 and from that moment on the match was completely levelled, a true SEHA derby to mark the beginning of the new season. A little over two minutes before the final buzzer Cuni Morales netted one for 24:24. In the end however, Predrag Vejin decided the match putting his team 24:25 up. In the final seconds of the game Morales missed the opportunity to level the match once again and the celebration could start on Nexe’s bench.
Wingers were dominating the match for Nexe with Fahrudin Melic scoring six goals and Marin Jelinic going 4/4. Radovanovic and Kuzmanovic grabbed a total of 13 saves. Cuni Morales and Timur Dibirov finished the match with five each for hosts however, unfortunately for the ‘Red&Black’ fans, that wasn’t enough today.

In the next round Vardar will travel to Serbia to meet Vojvodina and Nexe will play Motor Zaporozhye in Ukraine.

Branko Tamse, Nexe coach:
We were aware of the fact Vardar went through a coaching change and we didn’t have a lot of materials which we could use to analyze their game under new coach David who I really respect. I’m really satisfied with the way we performed here today. Vardar, in my opinion, has a really good team, a great mix of experience and potential. Even against such a team we’ve managed to rotate the team, give each and every player and chance. We’ve delivered a good performance on both physical and mental level. Our defense and easy goals we’ve managed to score as a result decided this one.

David Davis, Vardar 1961 coach:
We really didn’t have a lot of time to prepare for this one training without half of our team due to their national team obligations. We were kind of slow today. It’s never easy to play this first match of the SEHA season. I feel like we have a lot of room for improvement but in general I can say I’m satisfied. It’s obviously a shame we didn’t win but it’s hard to expect a lot from these first matches of the season.

Predrag Vejin, Nexe player:
We’ve already proved everyone we can play really good against some of the best European teams in the European League. I have to say it is always an honor to play against Vardar. I wish them all the best in the future. We are, on the other hand, happy and proud of the entire team because of this win here in Skopje.

Goce Georgievski, Vardar 1961 player:
We were expecting a home win, hoping for it. We have a new coach, whole new system and getting used to all that will surely take time. Some of our players are still absent and that was visible. There are a lot of matches ahead of us until the end of the season and we have to find a way to rise and get ready for what lies ahead.