Metalurg: second time in the CL

Metalurg secure their CL group place for the second time in the club’s history. The FYR Macedonian team have easily beaten the Turkish Izmir. The hosts won by 34-31 in the second leg of the qualification round and they showed their ambition to continue among the best European handball teams. Metalurg won the first game in Turkey by 33-29.

The home team played with continuous changes in the playing positions and they failed to carry out fluent attacking game.

Metalurg had ups and downs, but not even the guests were strong enough reach a surprise victory.

"We have to work more seriously in the future. Some of our key players are far away from their best form. We have beaten Izmir twice, but with this performance we can’t expect good results in the CL,” said Zvonko Shundovski, coach of Metalurg.

"We must play with passion and score as many goals as possible.”

During the game Metalurg played calmly even when Izmir had the chance to come closer. In the first half Izmir pushed stronger, but that was not enough. Metalurg could keep the lead and in the last five minutes improved with Stanojevic, Zivkovic and Canturija. At this point Metalurg were leading 17-12.

Metalurg were even leading by eight goals in the second half when the home team already started to celebrate. But Izmir made a great effort to "stay in the game". In the next minutes they came back to 30-28 and 31-29.

Metalurg didn't allow the victory to slip out of their hands.

Metalurg will face Barcelona, Kiel and Drammen in the CL group phase.

"We fill fulfill our mission. We will be happy with very good result to come. Our target in CL is to gain points,” said Shundovski. “There will be no white flag against Kiel, Barcelona even if they are much stronger than us”.