Vardar seal first position in Group A

Vardar

With eight wins this season, five-times SEHA - Gazprom League champions, Vardar, sealed first position in Group A with 28:26 (13:17) win over Tatran Presov. Reigning SEHA trophy owner will continue their road to Final 4 tournament as they directly qualified to quarter-finals and will find out their opponents after play-off matches.

Even though Vardar still have to play one more match in Nasice, on December 15th, North Macedonian champions will keep the leading position. 

Although the guests played without some standard players in this one, they showed that they have enough motivation and desire to play strong and quality match against SEHA champions. They were in the lead until the 44th minute, and at one point had 5 goals advantage (18:13). They had no fear of their rival and played simply and precisely.

Vardar again played according to the old recipe. Even when there was a negative result, they did not give up, they tried to impose their play and slowly push the opponent. Vardar may have struggled during a big part of the match, but when they got in the lead (21:20) for the first time, it was a sign they wouldn't stop there. Vardar continued to play as they outlined and increased the lead to 24:21.

But Tatran did not give up even when Vardar played strong in offense. Guest scored for 25:25 in the 55th minute for another thriller match in Skopje. 

Vardar soon scored twice for 27:25, and Khalifa Gedbane made few decisive saves in this period allowing his teammates to play easier in attack. Left wing Timur Dibirov sealed the home team win.

Ivan Cupic scored 6 while Pavel Atman and Daniil Shishkarev netted five times each for Vardar. Janus Lapajne alongside Nino Grzentic and David Michalka with five goals each were the best scorers for Tatran.

Tatran will finish Group Phase on third or fourth position, and their final position will be known after the match between Motor Zaporozhye and Vojvodina, scheduled for Tuesday.
Vardar will play their last Group A match in Nasice versus Nexe on December 15th.