13.11.2007, 09:32
Vardar Back to reality

The FYR Macedonians could not keep the rhythm of a determined Zagreb who are in the race for qualification again.

Vardar Back to reality

After one month of dreaming and calculating the steps to the second round of the CL, Vardar pro are back on the ground again.

Croatian champions, Croatia Osiguranje won 34-26 in Skopje. The Croatian victory means that they are back in race after a very bad start. Zagreb are in better position to secure second place of Group C than Vardar.

There was no chance for Vardar to make a surprise as in the first game in Zagreb. The guests showed their qualities against Vardar, found solution to keep the opponents away from the goal and punished the mistakes with fast breaks. Zagreb scored 8 goals on counter attacks.

After Vardar had a 1-0 lead, all they could do was just trying to get closer and reduce the goal deference.

The only chance to make the game more interesting was missed in the 25th minute. Winger Zlatko Mojsoski missed a 7-m shot and the results remained 12-10.

Radulovic and Vukadinovic also missed chances in the following minutes and Zagreb could take advantage from that.

Croatia Osiguranje played much better than in the first game in Zagreb where they made a 28-28 draw.

Quotes

"Before the start of the CL, Vardar were outsiders. Today we were defeated by a much better team. We play badly with many mistakes and missed chances. They didn't allow to us go get closer. After this defeat we have less chance to go on, but we will try to clinch at least the third position,” said Veselin Vujovic, coach of Vardar pro.

"We played as a team, with cool head. We started aggressively and with we had the only option to take two points. We are relaxed and now we have to win the two games remaining,” said Zagreb’s right back, Kiril Lazarov.

TEXT: Goran Antevski