After they both opened the new SEHA – Gazprom League season with a loss in Novi Sad against Vojvodina, Nexe and Eurofarm Pelister will on Thursday evening meet in Nasice. This will be their first match after the bronze medal in Zadar back in September in the SEHA – Gazprom League Final 4 tournament when Macedonians managed to win 27:23 and secure their first SEHA – Gazprom League podium. 
 
After a really good first part of the season during which they were dominating the competition both in the EHF European League, as well as the Croatian national championship, Nexe failed to kickstart the second part of it at the same tempo falling six goals short in Novi Sad against Vojvodina. In that match, they however weren’t able to count on some of their key players like Marin Jelinic and Dominik Kuzmanovic who were at the time returning from the 2023 IHF Men's World Championship. A rejuvenated roster displayed a good performance but that simply wasn’t enough to defeat Boris Rojevic and his guys who are looking good and dangerous at the beginning of the second part of the season. 
 
After reaching a comfortable win over the fourth-placed team from last season’s SEHA Final 4, the team from Novi Sad did the same against the third-placed one only two days later. Eurofarm’s roster, which is full of internationals, also wasn’t complete and neither will be in this one as this is the second and the final game of their two-game road trip. Coach Walther, however, had an extra few days to implement his ideas and get the team going in the right direction which is why we can expect a really good match on Thursday evening (18.00 CET). Will Nexe find a way to take revenge for the defeat in last season’s SEHA Final 4 bronze-medal match or will Eurofarm manage to end the two-game road trip on a high note? Stay tuned and find out!
 
Branko Tamse, Nexe coach: 
Next, we have a match against a team that also lost in Novi Sad in the first round. They have a good team full of internationals led by Lars Walther who used to coach me in Gorenje Velenje. We know each other very well, especially from last season's SEHA Final 4 – they have a well-formed, compact team that is playing solid in defence led by quality goalkeepers. We have to be aggressive on the defensive side of the court, and patient in attack. I expect this to be a good match and hope fans will be there to boost our chances of winning the game. We're still lacking some players but I hope those who usually don't play as much will use the opportunity to prove themselves on Thursday. 
 
Luka Moslavac, Nexe player:
We've delivered a really poor overall performance in Novi Sad against Vojvodina and now we are waiting for Pelister – a really interesting team that is also doing good in the EHF European League where we might actually even face off against them in the Last 16 phase. It is surely going to be an exciting encounter in which we'll have to focus on improving our defence. National team players Kuzmanovic, Jelinic, and Bakic are slowly returning, the atmosphere within the team is great and we're all eager for the match to start. I'd like to use this opportunity to invite the fans to come and support us as that really means a lot. 
 
Lars Walther, Eurofarm Pelister coach: 
Nexe has a great team but we've seen them make the same mistakes we did against Vojvodina. We are in the middle of the preparations and with some of our most important players injured – we simply didn't look good in Novi Sad. Now we've had two extra days to prepare for this one and I'm sure we'll deliver a better outing. The goal is to minimize turnovers. I'd say we're in a good shape physically and in case we manage to play the way we know we can - I'm sure we'll have a chance in Nasice. 

Mario Tankoski, Eurofarm Pelister player: 
Nexe is doing really well this season. They have a really good roster which is doing well in the EHF European League. They also lost the match in Novi Sad which means we'll both be looking to improve the overall picture in this game. I'd say it is normal to have as many ups and downs after the national team break but we have to make sure we're improving all the time. 

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