In a week of SEHA national derbies King Tomislav sports hall in Nasice will on Saturday (19.00 CET) host the Croatian edition with NEXE welcoming PPD Zagreb. Croatian champs are always a special, fan-attracting opponent not only for people in Nasice but in whole Slavonia region. From the players' side, derby always brings that special something, especially for NEXE who are still dreaming of the first Croatian derby W. However, Zlatko Saracevic and his boys are big favorites in this one too as they need points in order to keep up with all the opponents they're dealing with in this season' SEHA Gazprom F4 race. NEXE are on the other hand not living their best days with League's rookies Dinamo managing to stun them in Pancevo less than a week ago with 25:25 draw. Match will also have the special significance in the fact that both Vedran Zrnic and Josip Juric-Grgic started their careers in Croatian capital while on the other side Josip Bozic-Pavletic arrived to Zagreb from NEXE during the summer. Home-team coaches also used to wear 'Lions' jersey during their playing career and by that, PPD Zagreb line player Tin Kontrec was born in Nasice. That all shows Zagreb and NEXE players are good friends but become great rivals second they step on the court.

Hrvoje Horvat, NEXE coach:
During the course of the season we've delivered a few great outings against teams that are better than us but also some bad performances against teams that are not on our level. Obviously, psychology has a lot to do with this but we must show our best against PPD Zagreb. I believe fans will come and support us using this opportunity as a warm-up for important both SEHA and EHF Cup matches waiting for us in February. I'd like the atmosphere to be great. The thing I'm not so happy about is the fact we won't be able to count on injured Srsen and Gadza in this one.

Sasa Barisic-Jaman, NEXE player:
We are focused on Zagreb. We are aware that we must play better than in Pancevo but must forget that match as soon as possible. I'd also like to invite our fans as I believe we're up to a good one. We are definitely capable of delivering solid resistance and I hope we can win some points in the end too. 

Zlatko Saracevic, PPD Zagreb coach:
This is Croatian derby, always a tough, narrow match in which both sides wish to achieve a positive result. Our goal is to keep on playing good, keep on rising and of course, stay dominant in Croatia.

Tin Kontrec, PPD Zagreb player:
Matches against NEXE are always tense and tough. Last time we played against them we delivered a really good performance, played good in defense scoring a lot of easy goals in attack and deciding the match in its early phase. However, we're aware they will be a lot better this time but our goal remains the same and that is to play good and take three important points home.

Match will be broadcasted on Arena sport (CRO, MNE, SRB, MKD, BiH) and EHF TV.