Pelister brought down Partizan in front of a full hall in August, Ohrid took the trophy off Vardar

Eurofarm Pelister brought down Partizan 35-31, and the hall was full in August

Lino Cervar's debut on the Eurofarm Pelister bench ended the way Bitola wanted - 35-31 against Partizan in the first match of the new Regional League. Captain Filip Kuzmanovski scored 15 goals, almost half of everything Bitola produced. But the number that is worth more than the result is another one: the stands at the Boro Curlevski hall were almost full. In August, when half the city is on holiday and the other half is thinking about electricity bills and the start of the school year. There are towns where sport is something you watch when there is nothing else on television. Bitola is not that kind of town.

Partizan returns to the Champions League after 14 years, with a man who won that trophy with Vardar

That same Partizan that fell in Bitola enters the group stage of the EHF Champions League in a few weeks - for the first time since the 2012/13 season. Nine new players have arrived, Spanish coach Raul Gonzalez is on the bench, and in group A they face Veszprem, Fuchse Berlin and Porto. Among those who returned is Ilija Abutovic, the left back who at 38 comes back to Belgrade after 16 years away. Macedonian fans know him well - he won the Champions League trophy with Vardar in 2017, under Gonzalez. "It is hard to put into words what this means to me after 16 years," Abutovic says. The greatest success of Serbian handball this decade is being carried by two men whose biggest night happened in Skopje.

The EHF European League with a new format: five phases instead of two

The European League enters the 2026/27 season with a seriously reworked system - it now has five phases instead of the old two-stage model: group phase, play-offs, last 16, quarter-finals and the EHF Finals. The group phase stays recognisable - 32 teams in eight groups of four, the top two advance, and for the other 16 the season ends there. The novelty is that 12 teams eliminated from the Champions League join at the play-off stage, and two more in the last 16. The start is on 29 and 30 September, and the group phase ends on 1 December. More phases means more matches, and more matches means more television slots. Who said reforms in sport are for the sport?

Germany humbled Slovenia 36-27 in the junior EHF EURO final

In the final in Belgrade, at the Aleksandar Nikolic hall, Germany took gold at the Men's U18 EHF EURO with 36-27 against Slovenia. For the first time since 2021. The strangest part is how the match went: Slovenia, the only unbeaten team at the tournament, led 8-5 and the Germans called a time-out in the 15th minute. Then came a 12-3 run and by half time it was over. After the break Germany went up 20-11, and in the 41st minute it was 25-15. Vincent Fatzijev scored 8 goals for the winners, and Jaka Podvrsic, the tournament's best player, 5 for Slovenia. Another Balkan finalist reaching the last step and staying there.

Ohrid defended the title against Vardar, and the Super Cup is on 2 September in Gevgelija

HC Ohrid defended its trophy at the Krste Andonovski-Ustas memorial tournament, beating Vardar 1961 29-27 in the final. The hosts did not finish with just the cup - Dominik Mate was named most valuable player of both the final and the whole tournament, goalkeeper Dino Slavic the best in goal, and five Ohrid players made the team of the tournament: alongside those two, Adama Keita, Ante Ivankovic and Tilen Strmljan. Best defender was Marko Mamic of Zagreb, top scorer Abdelrahman Ashraf of Egypt. The two Macedonian giants will not wait long for a rematch - on 2 September in Gevgelija they play for the Macedonian Super Cup. If Ohrid wins again, the discussion about which is the country's first club becomes a lot shorter.