FYR Macedonia rely on home-grown talent for EHF EURO 2012

Seeking to surpass their previous accomplishments in major international handball events, FYR Macedonia have named a squad of 17 players for the upcoming EHF EURO 2012 in Serbia.

Coach Gino Strezovski, who will be hoping that his team can surpass the seventh-place finish of EHF EURO 2008, has called up 13 players plying their trade in the Macedonian league, most of them at Metalurg Skopje.

His squad includes two debutants, Vardar Skopje’s backcourt player Marija Steriova and German-based winger Matilda Atanasovska.
 
FYR Macedonia are in a tough Preliminary Round Group B alongside Sweden, France and Denmark, based in Serbia’s southern city of Nis.

Strezovski’s team will be hoping to enjoy the kind of raucous support from the Macedonian fans that lifted the men’s team to a fifth-place finish at the Men’s EHF European Championship in January this year. FYR Macedonia then finished ahead of a pack of more fancied rivals in Serbia and the women’s team will be aiming for a similar kind of upset.

Here is the squad of the Macedonian women’s team for EHF EURO 2012 (players’ clubs are Macedonian unless stated):

Goalkeepers: Tanja Adrejeva (Metalurg Skopje), Dijana Naumovska (Zito Prilep), Ivana Cvetanovska (Elpides Dramas, Greece).

Wingers: Simona Grozdanovska (Metalurg Skopje), Dragana Pecevska (Metalurg Skopje), Dragica Mitrova (Metalurg Skopje), Matilda Atanasova (Thuringer, Germany).

Backs: Mirjeta Barjamovska (Metalurg Skopje), Dusica Gjorgijevska (Metalurg Skopje), Zorica Despotovska (Metalurg Skopje), Marija Steriova (Vardar Skopje), Biljana Crvenkovska (PDO Salerno, Italy), Ivana Sazdovska (Vardar Skopje), Elena Gjorgievska (Buducnost Podgorica, Montenegro)

Pivots: Robertina Mecevska (Metalurg Skopje), Natasa Mladenovska (Metalurg), Marija Serafimovska (Zito Prilep).