As a part of the fourth round of SEHA GSS league Croatian champion CO Zagreb hosted Serbian Partizan and won easily  36:24 (17:11).

 

Match started in a bad way for Zagreb as Partizan took the lead at 4:3. Zagreb's defense was not functioning the best way possible and Partizan kept on enlarging the goal gap. After 20 minutes and plus 3 for Partizan, coach Dvoršek was forced to call a timeout and change almost the whole lineup. Shortly after that Zagreb's wingers Mihić and Matulić have given Zagreb the first lead at 11:10 and from that moment on it seemed like everything started working perfectly for Zagreb. Defence was faster and harder, attack more accurate and in the end of the first half it was plus 6 for Zagreb (17:11). Outstanding Mihić scored 4 for Zagreb in the first half, Mršulja also 4 for Partizan with Radovanović's 9 saves.

In the second half Zagreb raised the tempo even more and kept on raising the goal difference. Coach Dvoršek was again able to give chance to all players. Zagreb was playing solid defence, fast and accurate in attack and Partizan simply had no chance today against Croatian champion.

Zagreb's best scorer was Stepančić with 6 and Stevanović added 12 saves. Speaking of guests Mršulja scored 7 and goalkeeper Radovanović had 13 saves.

After the match Partizan's coach Brković had reason to be satisfied: ''We were playing well for first 25 minutes in attack as well as in defence and we were close to Zagreb. I am also happy for all the young players who got their chance today due to many injuries we had in the last period. Well match for us in the end and much material to learn from…''

Partizan's pivot and left back in today's match has already looked a bit forward: ''Zagreb is better team in this moment and it was great playing against them. In the next round we'll host Borac and that's the match in which we should look for points. Congrats to Zagreb.''

Zagreb's coach Dvoršek was happy that his players were able to play match on such high level even though they were pretty exhausted: ''We weren't able to do our best in the first 20 minutes because first lineup was very tired. After the timeout in 25th minute, we changed the whole back line in our team and they (Matić-Kaleb-Stepančić) have made the difference. Young players had their chance, match won dominantly… nothing more to ask for.''

Pivot Šušnja had his SEHA GSS league debut: ''I am happy for the win and I hope we're getting back into the winning atmosphere. Great game, especially in defence at the end of the first half when we made the difference and have actually decided the match.''

 

In the next round Partizan will host Borac m:tel and Zagreb will play in Brest against Meshkov.