Another year in SEHA Gazprom League has come to an end, this time with the match between Telekom Veszprem and PPD Zagreb in which hosts have in front of their own fans managed to secure 28:25 victory already booking a ticket for League’s final tournament.

This way Hungarians have joined Vardar Skopje who have already secured a F4 position meaning that SEHA handball fans will once again witness a real spectacle as they are already used to when booking tickets for SEHA Gazprom final tournaments. 

The biggest battle of the season will on the other side be led between PPD Zagreb (13 matches/28 points), Celje PL (15 matches/27 points) and Meshkov (14 matches/26 points) for final two places that lead to post-season final tournament. Their mutual encounters in February are expected to give answer to the question whether the same clubs, just like last season, will attend final weekend or will rookies from Celje snatch a place among the best.

By ’trophy hunters’, first part of the season was also quite intense for teams from the lower part of the table. Rookie team Gorenje Velenje have managed to deliver some solid performances despite of going through coach change with Borut Plaskan replacing Marko Sibila on their bench. They were even in charge of one of the biggest surprises of the season beating PPD Zagreb but did not take the title in that race with NEXE Nasice grabbing a history home-court draw against two-time champions Veszprem on wings of new coach Hrvoje Horvat who came in as a replacement for long-time leader of the team from Slavonia Zdenko Kordi. Macedonian vice-champions have also managed to play some nice matches once again proving they can compete even against team whose rosters appear to be much stronger than their own like Vardar. Their rising form hit the high note in Presov to end the year with a dominant 33:27 away win.

Slovak champions Tatran Presov showed a bit of a downfall considering previous season but with so many new and young faces in their roster it was not far from expected. On the other hand, Izvidjac Ljubuski have managed to jump in SEHA League bringing a quite amount of unique energy which has, combined with great fan supporting boost, resulted in some solid results under coach Zdenko Grbavac’ command.

Seasons continues on February 2nd in Skopje with NEXE paying a visit to Vardar.

Janc time

A guy whole handball world is at the moment talking about is Blaz Janc. 20-year old left-hander from Celje Pivovarna Lasko scored 102 goals in 15 matches so far with 77% efficiency - 28 more than second-placed Vedran Zrnic from NEXE Nasice. We can without doubt say he was quite unstoppable in the first part of the season!

Race for the best goalie of the season in total number of saves category will on the other side be much more interestin. Celje PL’s Urban Lesjak is currently on top with 124, just 6 ahead of Metalurg’s Darko Arsic. Ivan Stevanovic from PPD Zagreb has 103.