Mojsovski: "We must be beyond our best to beat France"

After having placed fifth – as high as never before – at the EHF EURO 2012 in Serbia, expectations had risen in handball Macedonia, but they plummeted as quickly after the men’s national team only placed ninth and tenth respectively at the EHF EURO 2014 and the World Championship 2015.

However, in the EHF EURO 2016 Qualification confidence is there after a 27:20 win against Switzerland and a 27:27 away draw against Czech Republic back in October and November last year.  

"In Qatar we played very bad in the Last 16 when it was most important. In the group phase our team was great, but when we needed to show our full potential, we simply failed.

"This generation is able to do more, but simply sometimes things don’t happen and we have to accept the fact that we are not able to change the past," says Naumce Mojsovski  

The next task in the EHF EURO Qualification is far from easy, as it is current Olympic, European and world champions France that come to Skopje on 29 April. The return match will take place in Toulouse on 3 May.

Head coach Ivica Obrvan has to replace Renato Vugrinec, who will miss the double-header for private reasons, as well as Nikola Markovski who broke his finger in a play-off match in the domestic league.

"We all know what France means in handball. We played against them before the World Championship and we know very well their capabilities and we know that they are very dangerous from all sides," says Mojsovski.

"I hope that we can surprise them in the first match that is being played on our court but in order to achieve this we must surpass ourselves."

But even in the case of defeat, the Macedonian playmaker believes that his team has what it takes to qualify for the EHF EURO 2016 in Poland.

"Our main goal in this qualification cycle is to get a ticket for Poland. I think that the main challenges for us will come in June when it will be decided which national teams will travel to the European Championship.

"I read news in which the French coach said that if they win both games against us, he will rest the best players in the team.

"This causes additional worries for us because they will not show their full strength against Switzerland and Czech Republic and it will be much harder for us to secure to ticket for Poland. However, I believe that we are able to do this," concludes Mojsovski.

The FYR Macedonia squad for the EHF EURO Qualification matches against France

Goalkeepers: Borko Ristovski, Petar Angelov

Back court players: Filip Mirkulovski, Filip Lazarov, Kiril Lazarov, Naumce Mojsovski, Nemanja Pribak, Aco Jonovski,Velko Markovski, Vlatko Mitkov

Wingers: Dejan Manaskov, Goce Ojlevski, Goce Georgievski, Nikola Kostevski

Line players: Stojance Stoilov, Zarko Pesevski