Time for celebration in Skopje as Metalurg wins after 19 months

Победа на Металург по 19 месеци пауза

Metalurg - Tatran

Metalurg has managed to end a bad run of 10 defeats in a row in SEHA Gazprom League with a 27:21 (14:9) triumph over Tatran. Hosts have finally, after narrow losses against Veszprem, Vardar and Meshkov managed to work things out, improve in defense and reach a desired victory.

Home team was able to take control of the match from the beginning enlarging the gap to 7 in first half on wings of amazing Arsic who had 8 saves in first 30 minutes and 6 more in second half. Trtik’s boys have however had their chances reducing the lead to 3 twice (12:9, 21:18), but in those moments home team would react in a best possible way and sail to a bigger difference with a few good plays. Both teams now have one victory in SEHA League this season.

In the next round Metalurg will host NEXE and Tatran will stay in Skopje until Tuesday when they will meet Vardar. 

Lino Cervar, Metalurg coach:
We’ve opened the game well, especially in defense and our attack was fully focused and in good mood as well. We were able to enlarge the gap with some easy goals. We’ve had some ‘dark holes’ in our performance as well allowing them to come closer. In the second half we were also able to make the difference bigger but then lost it due to some unforced errors on our side. Important thing is that players were able to remain focused and finish the match well. Fans were here for us today as well and I am grateful for that. 

Filip Talevski, Metalurg player:
I am glad that we’ve secured the first win of the season. Key for our victory was defense and Darko Arsic along with our patience. We wanted to keep the focus all the time despite of allowing them to come closer in a few occasions . It did not demotivate us. 

Rastislav Trtik, Tatran coach:
Metalurg’s back line was much better today than ours as well as their goalies. We’ve played badly in defense with some technical mistakes in attack which was by that struggling to break their zone. We were simply unable to beat Metalurg today.

Lukasz Urban, Tatran player:
Our goalkeepers and defense were not good today. Attack on the other side had poor scoring percentage in the second half. We’ve made lots of mistakes and if you make so much mistakes it is hard to win. Metalurg was excellent.