First win for the cadets: Macedonia 33:23 against Italy at the Euros in Belgrade

After three defeats in the first group stage of the European Championship for handball players under 18 in Belgrade, the young Macedonian side finally had something to celebrate - and convincingly. 33:23 against Italy, with a four-goal lead already at half-time (17:13). Coach Goran Kuzmanoski gave every player court time, and the most effective was winger Boban Popovski with nine goals, while Stefan Gjorgieski had six. The cadets are now playing for 17th to 24th place. The next match is on Tuesday (4 August) at 12:00 against Turkey, and it is worth far more than a single win: beating Turkey leads to the play-off for ninth to 16th place, which means survival at the Euros, qualification for the 2028 European Championship and a place at the 2027 World Championship, where the top 15 teams from this tournament will end up. Three defeats are not a catastrophe when the entire next cycle hangs on the fourth match.

Popovski's lob among the five best goals of the tournament

And while the results side is starting slowly, one Macedonian second made the official EHF list. The lobbed goal Boban Popovski scored against France came third in the TOP 5 most beautiful goals from the first stage of the cadet European Championship in Belgrade. The scoreline against France did not go our way, but the prepared lob remained - a move that requires two players to see the same moment in the same second, without a word between them. If you want to understand why cadet handball is worth watching even when the table looks bad, that is the answer. The talent is there. What the system does with it remains to be seen.

Skopje hosts the M18 EHF Championship I: eight teams, and no Macedonia

From Monday (3 August) Skopje is hosting the M18 EHF Championship I 2026, a competition with eight national teams split into two groups of four. In Group A, Romania meet Lithuania, Latvia and Ukraine - and Latvia were runners-up in the same competition in 2024 in Slovakia, after losing the final to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Group B features Greece, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Estonia, with the Netherlands having reached the semi-finals in 2024 and finished fourth. The semi-finals are on Saturday (8 August), and the third-place match (17:00) and final (19:30) close the tournament on Sunday (9 August). The one curious detail: the host country's team is not in the competition, because our cadets are at the Euros in Belgrade. So we are running a tournament at home while our players are away. That is not a mistake - it is a schedule, but it is worth knowing before someone asks why there is no Macedonian shirt in the stands.

Pelister in Group G of the EHF European League: Gummersbach, Logroño and Gdańsk

The draw for the group stage of the EHF European League for 2026/27 placed Eurofarm Pelister in Group G, where the Bitola club will face Germany's VfL Gummersbach, Spain's Logroño La Rioja and Poland's Wybrzeże Gdańsk. The group stage runs to six rounds and is played from 29 September to 2 December 2026, with the top two teams from each group going through to the play-offs - where they will be joined by the third and fourth-placed sides from the Champions League group stage. So Pelister is not only playing these three teams, but also a system that sends those dropping out of the elite back down as reinforcements for the play-offs. A club with Champions League experience knows what that arithmetic weighs. The group is not a foregone verdict, but it is not an easy draw either.

Champions League with a new format: Barcelona defends the trophy, Partizan returns after 13 years

The EHF has confirmed the schedule for the Champions League group stage for 2026/27, with the season opening on 9 September at 18:45: Veszprém against Porto, semi-finalists Aalborg against PSG, RK Zagreb against Celje in a regional derby and Industria Kielce against debutants Kriens-Luzern. Barcelona defends its title the same evening against debutants Aarhus at 20:45, while Magdeburg - the only team to break the Catalans' run of trophies over the past six seasons - plays its first match against Kolstad. Last season's finalists, Füchse Berlin, travel on Thursday to Partizan in Serbia, back in the elite after a 13-year absence. Round two brings a rematch of last year's quarter-final: Berlin against Veszprém, a tie decided last season on penalties after 120 minutes in Füchse's favour. The new format ends the group stage after six rounds, on 29 October, with two teams from each of the six groups advancing to the main round from 18 November to 4 March 2027.