While HC Meshkov Brest had secured fourth place in group A of the EHF Champions League Men before travelling to Skopje, HC Vardar 1961 still had the possibility of improving a place if they won on Thursday evening.

However, Meshkov Brest dominated proceedings almost from start to finish, enabling them to record a four-goal win, 36:32, in the final round of the group phase.  

GROUP A
HC Vardar 1961 (MKD) vs HC Meshkov Brest (BLR) 32:36 (12:20)

• in the first half, Meshkov were ahead of their opponents in every aspect of the game 
• taking their first five-goal advantage after 15 minutes, Meshkov let Vardar catch their breath before putting their foot to the pedal again. The Belarusian side enjoyed a 7:1 run to conclude the first half and were ahead by eight at the break
• despite Vardar attempting a comeback in the second half, Brest remained in control too much to really feel threatened
• Mikita Vailupau scored an impressive 12 goals from 12 shots for Meshkov; Timur Dibirov netted nine times for Vardar
• Meshkov finished group A in fourth place and will face HC Motor in the play-off round, while Vardar's seventh-place finish means they will meet Telekom Veszprém
  

Meshkov record first away win in group phase

Meshkov Brest are, in some ways, an anomaly. Ranked fourth in group A, the team from Belarus had only taken one point away from their base in the EHF Champions League this season.

But on Thursday night in Skopje, they proved that they had every quality needed to win on away grounds, which is something that they might be able to use in the knockout phase of the competition.