Matches between Vardar and Meshkov Brest have always been full of uncertainty, and the same has happened this time in the first official match of SEHA Gazprom season with teams sharing points after 34:34 draw.

Vardar was two seconds away from wining the match, after Luka Cindric scored to put them up 34:33.  Meshkov have however managed to reach an equalizer from 7-meter line - scorer was who else than Rastko Stojkovic.

Hosts were playing good in the second half, eventually reaching 3 goal advantage with less than 2 minutes left on the clock. However, Razgor and Kristopans have netted two important goals to bring their team back into the match. It seemed like Cindric’ clutch goal has decided the match but guests did not give up which has in the end brought them a point in a thriller finish.

Goalkeepers were shining on both sides with Sterbik saving 11 shots and Pesic one more. Timur Dibirov scored 9 goals leading the best-scorer column, Canellas added 6 as much as Rastko Stojkovic scored for Meshkov.

Vardar will in the next round face Metalurg in a Macedonian derby and Meshkov will host Izvidjac.

Raul Gonzalez, Vardar’ coach

I want to congratulate to Meshkov on their performance tonight.We were not good in the first half but in the second we’ve managed to come back with 5-1 defense. We however must work hardly to avoid such finishes in the past.  

Luka Cindric, Vardar’ player

It was a tough match. The whole team had only one training all together. It should not be an excuse however. We did not play as we’ve agreed before the match. We have a lot of things to fix for the future. We expected a victory tonight but we must move on and think about next games.

Sergei Bebeshko, Meshkov’ coach

This is the first game in the season and it was interesting till the last seconds. In attack we’ve played well and the defense was not on the level we can present, especially looking at the scoreboard and seeing that they have scored 34 goals.

Ivan Pesic, Meshkov’ player

Whole game was full of ups and downs, but this is probably the fairest result. We’ve had quite a busy schedule in past several days playing on tournament in Kanjiza and arriving here clearly tired but despite of that we’ve managed to deliver a solid performance.  We’ve made too many technical mistakes in final 15 minutes allowing Vardar to score easy goals. Lots of goals from both sides but I believe goalies have delivered some fine performances as well.