Zagreb lose point at home

Croatian champions, Croatia Osiguranje Zagreb, did not show a good performance at their first home match in the CL season.In the “Ledena dvorana“ hall in front of their 4,500 spectators they ended 28:28 (10:16) against Vardar Skopje.

The final result is not the worse sign for Zagreb. The biggest problem of the Croatians was that Vardar had a lead during the entire match and the home team took one point in last minutes of the game. Both teams can be satisfied with one point after the match.

Surprise, surprise

Vardar surprised Zagreb at the beginning of the match and they took a 0:5 lead. Kiril Lazarov scored first goal for Zagreb only in 7th minute. Vardar even took a six-goal lead at 1:7. The disappointed Zagreb fans could hardly believe what was happening. But they had to face the sad fact that the FYR Macedonian team dominated in the first half that they won 10:16.

Vukic vs Vardar

Ljubo Vukic came in for the second half and scored three consecutive goals to give the hope of Zagreb back. It has to be said that the Vardar defence was much better than Zagreb’s. This strict defending was a big problem for all Croatians except for Ljubo Vukic. His goals kept Zagreb in the game. But Zagreb managed to reinforce their defence line. With the saves of Vlado Sola and a more efficient Croatian attack, they scored seven consecutive goals.

Mitrevski saves a point

The Croatians equalised for the first time in the 55th minute and in 56th they took the lead at 27:26. In a thrilling end game, FYR Macedonian goalkeeper Mitrevski saved a shot of Duvnjak and the match ended with a 28:28.

The best player of the match was Ljubo Vukic who scored seven goals playing only in the second half. Mladen Rakcevic scored six goals for Vardar.

Disappointed Cervar

Zagreb coach was very disappointed after the game: “It is not allowed to give the ball directly to the opponent. I was amazed to see these beginner mistakes made by our most experienced players, Lazarov and Vori. Players who returned from bigger and wealthier clubs have to take more seriously their tasks in Zagreb. In addition, we have many young and talented players who think that they achieved everything already by coming to Zagreb from smaller clubs. All these players have to change their way of thinking and to take their job more seriously.”

Veselin Vujovic was very satisfied, on the other side, with his team: “Despite this home draw I still believe that Zagreb are the favourites to win the group.”

In reality, after two rounds in Group C, the situation is getting more complicated especially for Zagreb. They are currently last in the group with only one point.