This will be Eurofarm Pelister’s third SEHA – Gazprom League season. In the previous two seasons they were eliminated in the SEHA Final 4 battle by Nexe and Meshkov Brest. We’ll see if third time will really be the charm for the team from Bitola which is once again aiming for the SEHA Final 4 spot.

Coach Zeljko Babic is doing a great job in North Macedonia. This summer he’s managed to bring a trophy to the city of Bitola after 15 years and the feeling is he has a great roster with two or three solid players in each position. Eurofarm managed to reach a win against Vardar in Macedonian Super Cup – a win which boosted their belief in good times that are ahead.

Their roster went through a certain number of changes. Egyptian goalie Karim Hendawy parted ways with the team and club reacted well bringing in Hungarian international Marton Szekely. Trajkoski and Chanevski were also replaced by former Vardar’s goalie Marko Kizic and Filip Ivanovski which means they are entering the new SEHA season with a whole new goalkeeping trio.

Left wingers are experienced Bojan Madzovski and Goce Ojleski. On the right they have Nenad Kosteski and Croatian national team player Josip Bozic Pavletic who are among team’s best scorers so far this season. Tomislav Kusan departed for Bundesliga which means line duties will be taken care of by Elmir Gradjan and Nikola Markoski.

The engine of the team is playmaker Josip Peric who is not only a prolific scorer but is also capable of making his teammates look much better when he is out there. Mario Tankoski and Cuban international Reiner Taboada will be helping him in the middle. On the left they have Croatian sharp shooter Stipe Mandalinic, Nemanja Obradovic who is also an important defensive asset of Babic’s team as well as Dejan Kukulovski. Here we must also add the defensive specialist Milorad Kukoski. Right backs are national team players of Macedonia, Croatia and Montenegro – Martin Velkovski, Mateo Maras and Mirko Radovic.

Pelister has a well-composed team which can surely endanger Vardar in  Macedonian national championship this season. Currently they are second in the Macedonian Super League, right behind the ‘Red&Black’ from Skopje. In EHF European League, Eurofarm Pelister has already secured a place in the knock-out phase. They’ve managed to do it in a demanding group with Kadetten  Schaffhausen, Sporting, AEK Athens, Tatabanya and Nimes and it will definitely be interesting to see how far the team from Bitola can go in all competitions.