Nexe secure a three-goal advantage before the second leg in Bitola

Nexe

After the first 60 minutes of SEHA – Gazprom League Play Offs matchup between Nexe and Eurofarm Pelister, Croatian vice-champions have a three-goal advantage as they were at home, with 23:20, better than North Macedonian vice-champions.

Before the first whistle there was a small ceremony in Nasice with Nexe's President Josip Ergovic welcoming Croatian national team assistant coach Hrvoje Horvat and Qatari national team player Mario Tomic back after the two achieved great results with their national teams during the winter break.
Hosts weren't able to count on Mrdjenovic, Jaganjac, Buvinic and Srsen in this one. The fact they were forced to play without a left-handed back proved to be quite a problem for the team from Slavonia which was often forced to play with two line players against very good and disciplined Eurofarm's 6-0 defense. Both teams made a lot of mistakes in the very beginning of the match with Gradimir Chanevski stopping three seven-meter shots – against Kevic, Barisic Jaman and Mileta. However, even despite of that, home team was still able to go to the break with a 10:9 lead.

Nexe managed to open the gap to four early in the second but Eurofarm refused to give up slowly cutting their lead all the way until ten minutes before the final whistle when Lovro Jotic brought his team back to only -1 (16:15). Hosts were once again able to open the gap to four with solid defense while on the other side attacking with seven players. However, guests were once again able to find extra strength cutting the lead back to 21:20 with three goals in a row with less than two minutes to play. Luckily for home-team fans, Barisic Jaman and Kevic didn't let that bring them down but managed to score final two goals for their team helping them secure a three-goal advantage before the second leg which will be played in Bitola.

Janko Kevic and Sasa Barisic Jaman netted four each for Nexe while Ostroushko led Eurofarm with seven, five of which came from the seven-meter line. Lovro Jotic scored six from seven attempts. Moreno Car finished the match with nine saves for Nexe while Nikolce Mitrevski had as much for Eurofarm. Gradimir Chanevski delivered a splendid performance as well stopping four seven-meter shots.