For the second season in a row, Belarusian champions Meshkov Brest will join the competition in the quarter-final phase, along with Telekom Veszprem. Although they have managed to reach the final tournament eight times in their nine SEHA – Gazprom League seasons so far, they’ve only reached the final twice failing to go all the way both times. 

After what was a successful season for them last year when they reached EHF Champions League quarter-finals, reigning Belarusian champions underwent a serious amount of roster changes. Four important players parted ways with the club – winger David Razgov and backs Marko Panic, Sandro Obranovic as well as Aleksandar Shkurinsky. When we add that they also lost goalkeeper Ivan Pesic in December, we’ll realize coach Dani Gordo has a tough job of repeating last season’s success ahead of him.

Left wingers for the season are Andrei Yurynok and Ilya Tamashuk. On the right are Mikita Vailupau and experienced Maxim Baranau. On the line they’ll once again have Vladimir Vranjes as well as Artsiom Selviasiuk and Vyacheslau Shumak. Left backs are Russian Dmitry Santalov, French international Baptiste Bonnefond as well as newcomer Stevan Sretenovic. Stas Skube and Jaka Malus are organizing the offensive aspect of their game while on the right, they have Stanislav Kasparek and Pawel Paczkowski. With the departure of Ivan Pesic, club reacted immediately bringing in Vyacheslav Saldatsenka to help Ivan Matskevich and Ilya Usyk.

Their roster appears to be a bit shorter than last seasons. They’ve however managed to prove doubters wrong winning against Elverum away from home in the EHF Champions League as well as securing a point against both PPD Zagreb and Montpellier which will surely be a big thing for Gordo and his guys ahead of the second part of the season.

In the domestic championship, Meshkov Brest are currently on top of the standings with great chances of defending the title once again.