Vardar with an impressive victory reaches the quarter-final
Vardar with an impressive victory reaches the quarter-final
In the decisive Last 16 return match in Skopje, Vardar, fueled by the great atmosphere in the Jane Sandanski hall, managed to topple their Polish rivals with a high-scoring victory of 31:20.
This win brings the Macedonian team to their second quarter-final in the club’s history. While the Polish team found a solution to limit Vadar’s wing play, the backcourts turned out to be unstoppable and were Vardar’s main weapons in this return game.
LAST 16
HC Vardar (MKD) vs Orlen Wisla Plock (POL) 31:20 (14:10)
While in the first clash the Polish team had an aggressive start, which ended with a six-goal victory, tonight the home team Vardar opened the game with two fast goals, but the guests from Plock replied keeping it tight in the first opening minutes of the match.
Led by the support of 5,000 thousand fans eager for victory the Russian back Sergey Gorbok with a few goals put Vardar ahead with a five-goal difference 13:8.
While Plock found a solution for the opponent wingers, the home side kept up the difference thanks to their back court players being their best asset right up until the end of the half leaving the court on half-time break with a four-goal gap (14:10).
Vardar started furiously in the second half with two consecutive goals coming from Alex Dujshebaev, which pulled the game level.
A six-goal gap in favour of the home side came in just two minutes of play; this caused the away coach Cadenas to call the second timeout for his team early in the game.
Sterbik with few amazing saves along with two goals from Dujshebaev extended the difference to nine goals and brought the quarter-finals closer to the Macedonian team after only 10 minutes of the second half.
The home-team didn’t let Plock catch a breath in the second half maintaining the high tempo performance.
The Polish defence was in complete disarray for the last five minutes as Stoilov threw in three more goals to increase the gap even further, with the game ringing out at 31:20 in the Macedonian’s favour.
Top best scorers of the night were Dujshebaev with nine goals for Vardar while Racotea, Jurkiewicz and Wisniewski all had three goals to their name for the Polish side.
“It was great experience for us to play in this competition. Congratulations to Skopje they were better than us in this match,” stated Wisla Plock coach Manolo Cadenas at the press conference.
“It was difficult to play today taking in consideration the bad result in Poland. Wisla Plock played great throughout the whole season especially against Barcelona and Kielce and it is a great success for Vardar to make it this far two seasons in a row,” replied the home coach Raul Gonzales.
