The cadets beat Portugal with a goal six seconds from the end

Macedonia's cadet handball team beat Portugal 26:25 at the European Championship in Belgrade, with the winning goal coming five or six seconds before the buzzer through Kostov. The match was ours for almost the whole way - 13:9 at half-time, and at two points the lead was plus six - but the final ten minutes could have swept all that work away. Goalkeeper Almeida woke up, Portugal got to 25:25 and had an attack to win it. The defence of the team coached by Goran Kuzmanoski held, and then Kostov beat the same goalkeeper who had already collected 15 saves. Our top scorers were Damchevski with 7 and Kostov with 5 goals, while Nikolovski finished with 13 saves. On Sunday they play for ninth place, against the winner of Austria - Israel.

Gjorcheski with a shirt for Aco Jovikj: „We carry you in our hearts”

After the win over the Faroe Islands, defensive specialist Marko Gjorcheski appeared in a shirt dedicated to former international and strategist Aleksandar Jovikj, who died too young. The shirt read „We carry you in our hearts”. The gesture is small in scale and large in meaning - a generation that has not yet made a single senior appearance showing that it knows who built the path it is walking. In a sport where everything is measured in goals, goal differences and placings, this is the one statistic that does not get erased by the next match.

Slovenia and Germany will play for the cadet EURO title

The final of the M18 EHF EURO 2026 in Belgrade is set. Germany beat Spain 32:27 in the semi-final, after trailing 10:11 at half-time - then opened the second half with a 7:1 run in eight minutes and the match was decided. The top scorer was Julius Petke with 8 goals. In the other semi-final Slovenia dismantled Denmark 26:17, holding the Scandinavian side to just five goals in one decisive fifteen-minute stretch. Luka Kresal scored 5 goals. Both teams reached the semi-finals unbeaten. The final is on Sunday, 9 August.

A new Champions League format - Partizan returns after 13 years

The EHF has confirmed the dates for the group stage of the Champions League for the 2026/27 season, which begins on 9 September in Veszprem, Aalborg, Zagreb and Kielce. Title holders Barcelona open against debutants SAH Aarhus, while Magdeburg - the only team to have broken the Catalans' run in the last six seasons - host Kolstad. A regional draw right in the first round: Zagreb against Celje. The biggest news for readers in the region is that Partizan returns to the elite after a 13-year absence, with Fuchse Berlin as their first opponent. Under the new system the group stage ends on 29 October, with six groups of four teams, two from each advancing to the main round.

Bozhinovski and Nachevski to referee a World Championship semi-final

The International Handball Federation has appointed the referees for the semi-finals of the women's youth World Championship in Romania, and among them are Danielo Bozhinovski from Bitola and Viktor Nachevski from Skopje. A Macedonian refereeing pair at a World Championship semi-final is not an accident - it is the federation's own assessment that they performed better than most of the world. Referees rarely get headlines when everything goes as it should, so this is worth noting while it lasts. The next time somebody starts saying nothing comes out of Macedonia in handball, this is the name that disproves it.