Meshkov Brest made a big step towards achieving their goal to participate in the SEHA – Gazprom League Final 4 tournament for the 9th time after a triumph versus Eurofarm Pelister in the first Quarter-Final duel 31-27 (13-9). Although they arrived in Bitola with 15 players and without four key players, the guests from Belarus justified the epithet of the favorite. This was the third victory for Meshkov in the mutual duels with the team from Bitola.

In a match with a total of three red cards for both teams (Nemanja Obradovic, Nikola Markovski and Baptiste Bonnefond) where at times the defense dominated on both sides, with tough duels, uncompromising fight and the Belarusian team in the first half did its "homework". Eurofarm Pelister only equalized the result twice at the beginning, but Meshkov led and slowly increased the advantage until the end of the match.

Routinely, rationally and with maximum use of every given chance for a goal, Meshkov slowly broke the resistance of Eurofarm Pelister. The guests led by Stas Skube and Stanislav Kasparek scored a total of 7 goals from the same number of attempts in the first half, and Ivan Matskevich had five successful saves. On the opposite side Eurofarm Pelister goalkeepers Kizic and Szekely had one save each. Even then it was clear that the guests would not only win but also gain a solid goal difference for the second game.

Where the guests stopped in the first half, they continued in the second half when in the 40th minutes they reached the highest difference - plus 7 for a 21-14 lead. Then Meshkov had the highest lead again in the 46th minute (24-16). By the very end of the match, Eurofarm Pelister reduced the gap but there was no time for a turnaround.

The most efficient players in the match were Stipe Mandalinic with 9 goals, and Josip Peric added 6 goals for Eurofarm Pelister. Stanislav Kasparek ended the match with 8, while Mikita Vailupov scored 6 goals for Meshkov Brest.

The second leg is scheduled for August 29th, where the Belarusian champion will once again have the favorite role.