North Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary and Croatia start EC Qualifiers in the perfect way!

North Macedonia - EHF EURO Qualifiers

Busy national team week is behind us which means we’ll use the opportunity to have a quick look back on what happened during the last few days before players get back to their respective clubs. We have a lot to cover so without further ado – let’s get going!

In Group 1 we’ve seen North Macedonia secure two victories – at home versus Luxembourg (38:24), and on the road against Turkiye (27:36). Filip Taleski, Zarko Peshevski and others all delivered well for their country in these last few days but we’ll highlight the best scorers – against Luxembourg it was Eurofarm Pelister’s Cvetan Kuzmanovski with five while Vardar’s Dejan Manaskov scored just as much in Turkiye. After two rounds, Portugal leads Group 1 with four points (+28 goal difference) while North Macedonia has just as much with +23 goal difference. Luxembourg (-25) and Turkiye (-26) are both still waiting for the first points.

In Group 2, Serbia delivered two splendid performances securing two victories – at home against Finland (34:24) as well as in Slovakia in SEHA – Gazprom League derby (21:27). Slovakia is that way still waiting for first points in the Qualifiers after suffering a 38:26 defeat in the first round. Dragan Pechmalbec led Serbia with six against Finland while Vladimir Cupara grabbed ten saves. In the match against Slovakia Bogdan Radivojevic and Lazar Kukic netted seven each for Serbia while Martin Potisk finished the match with six for the hosts. With four rounds left ahead, Norway leads Group 2 with four points (+25), Serbia is second (+16), Slovakia third (-18) and Finland fourth (-23).

In Group 3 there are no SEHA – Gazprom League representative countries but we can say that after two rounds we have Iceland in first place with four points, the Czech Republic in second with just as much while Estonia and Israel still have no points. In Group 4 Austria leads the pack with four, Romania and Ukraine follow with two while the Faroe Islands have zero.

In Group 5, Croatia secured two victories coming out on top against Greece at home (33:25) as well as in Belgium (27:30). Filip Glavas finished the match with six against Greece while Nexe’s Marin Jelinic added four. In the match against Belgium, Luka Cindric, Tin Lucin and Ivan Martinovic netted six each while Dominik Kuzmanovic delivered a splendid performance grabbing ten saves in moments when it mattered the most. With two rounds behind us Croatia is first with four points (+11), Netherlands (-3) and Greece (-4) follow with two each while Belgium has zero.

In Group 6, Hungary went off twice dominantly defeating Lithuania at home (36:23) and then Georgia on the road (24:41). Mate Lekai led scorers with five against Lithuania while PPD Zagreb’ Csaba Leimeter netted four. Boka Bendeguz, on the other hand, finished the match against Georgia with eight. That means Hungary is currently first with four points (+30), Switzerland has just as much (+2) while Lithuania (-14) and Georgia (-18) have zero.

In Group 7, Bosnia and Herzegovina suffered two losses – in Slovenia (28:20) and at home against Montenegro (25:36). Elmir Gradjan led them with five against Slovenia while Tatran’s Marko Davidovic finished the match against Montenegro with ten goals from just as much attempts. Montenegro leads Group 7 with four points (+20), Slovenia has just as much (+13) while Kosovo (-14) and Bosnia and Herzegovina have zero.

In Group 8, France is currently first with four points (+28 goal difference), Poland follows with just as much (+25) while Italy (-18) and Latvia (-35) have zero.

Photo credit: kolektiffimages