As a part of the 6th round of SEHA GSS league CO Zagreb hosted leading Tatran Prešov in Sutinska Vrela hall and in the end won dominantly 42:34 (20:19).

 

Although coach Dvoršek has before the match stated that players had little time to prepare for this match after playing in Russia in CL, beginning of the match showed that players are in good physical form. From the very first minute match had a quick tempo, mostly caused by not so good defences both teams were playing. Tempo has eventually slowed down a bit but still there was many goals in the first half, 39 (20:19). Home-team has reached the first  equaliser at 10:10 in 16th minute with few easy counter attack goals by Šprem and Horvat. Pejovič and superb Kristopans were Tatran's best scorers in the first half, both with 5 goals. Stepančić, Horvat and Mandalinić have on the other side scored 4 for Zagreb.

 

Zagreb opened the second half in the right way , made 5:1 and went on 25:20. Great performance by the whole team gave coach Dvoršek again chance to rotate and each player , except Teo Čorić who has played for only a few minutes, got into the scoring list. Horvat scored 7 for Zagreb, Stepančić and Mandalinić 6 combined with Stevanović's great 14 saves. Speaking of Tatran, Latvian giant Kristopans was outstanding with 9 goals, Krupa had 6 saves.

 

After the match Zagreb's coach Dvoršek was really satisfied with today's performance: ''This is probably our best match in SEHA. We have really played well and nice. We haven't had much time from Russia but players did fantastic. I can't say much more but I would be happy if we would play this way against Veszprem in CL.''

Marko Matić was one of Zagreb's best players, in defence as well in offence: ''The whole team was on higher level, on a level we were on in the second half against St.Petersburg. Team is confident and we really believe that we can play against Veszprem, especially if we will play fast as we did today.''

 

Tatran coach's opinion was that defence wasn't on match niveau: ''We played bad in defence especially to Zagreb's backs. The first half was good but when they went on +5 in the second half we weren't able to catch them anymore.''

Pejovič was one of Tatran's best player: ''They were more concentrated and better today. They have much more good players than us and it made the difference. We had much respect for them and we knew it will be hard.''

 

In the next round Zagreb will play against Vojvodina in Novi Sad and Tatran will play in Skopje against Metalurg.