After the win over Nexe, the fourth-placed team from the last season’s SEHA – Gazprom League Final 4 tournament, Vojvodina have on Monday evening in Novi Sad managed to comfortably defeat Eurofarm Pelister, reigning SEHA – Gazprom League bronze-medallist. In the end 29:24 for the Serbian champions.

After the first 15 minutes of the match, during which the result was leveled, the team led by coach Boris Rojevic slowly started opening the gap in this one. A little over ten minutes before the end of the first, the hosts managed to reach +4 (10:6) for the first time, holding on to it all the way until the last few minutes of the opening half of the match when Urban Lesjak grabbed a few saves opening the opportunity for Nenad Kosteski to close the gap at 14:14 with the buzzer. Aware of the mistake they have made late in the first allowing Eurofarm to get back into this one, Vojvodina entered the second half motivated to prove that those last few minutes were nothing but a coincidence. Less than five minutes into the first, the gap was once again opened to +4 (19:15), however, Serbian champions didn’t slow down this time additionally widening the gap to +7 (25:18) throughout the middle of the second half, sealing the deal in this match. In the end comfortable 29:24 win and three new big and important points for the team from Novi Sad which has entered the new SEHA – Gazprom League season in an incredible way.

Milan Milic, Luka Rogan and Barys Pukhouski netted four each for Vojvodina while Luka Arsenic finished the game with 11 saves. Nenad Kosteski, on the other side, scored seven goals while Marko Kizic and Urban Lesjak combined for 12 saves.

Eurofarm Pelister will now have a few days to analyze this match and prepare for the second match of their two-game road trip in which they will play in Nasice against Nexe. In the next encounter of SEHA – Gazprom League’s 12th season, Vardar 1961 will welcome Serbian Partizan Belgrade on Wednesday.

Boris Rojevic, Vojvodina coach:
We’ve delivered a phenomenal performance. The only thing I’m not happy about is that we weren’t able to keep the same tempo throughout the entire course of the match, just like against Nexe a few days ago. I’m not happy about the injuries of two of our players because every player is important to us but it is what is. We’re now turning towards the EHF Cup.

Luka Arsenic, Vojvodina goalkeeper:
An important win for us, one that will definitely additionally raise our confidence levels. Once again we looked really well on the defensive side of the court playing together, as a team. Eurofarm is a top team but I have to be honest and say I feel like we still haven’t shown our full potential.

Lars Walther, Eurofarm Pelister coach:
Their 6-0 defense killed us. We were not able to pass the ball around and work our way through it. We were not even close honestly and I have to say this was a well-deserved win for Vojvodina. We are obviously dealing with problems trying to get things to work as we couldn’t count on many of our players because of the IHF Men's World Championship obligations but that is no excuse. I believe we’ll get better as the season moves on.

Wilson Davayes, Eurofarm Pelister player:
A well-deserved win for Vojvodina here today. They were a better team out there. We didn’t have a solution for their defense. At the moment I feel like we have a problem getting everyone to function together as a team after such a long break.

Photo credit: kolektiff images