Vardar return to the Champions League after five years, and straight away in Germany

On Thursday 10 September at 20:45, in the Rothenbach-Halle in Kassel, RK Vardar 1961 open their European journey against Melsungen. The Skopje side last appeared in the Champions League in the play-offs of the 2020/21 season, and won the last of their two titles seven years ago. Melsungen, meanwhile, enter the competition for the first time in the club's history - as winners of the EHF European League.

The irony lies in the name on the German bench. There sits Roberto García Parrondo, the man who led Vardar to the Champions League title in 2019. "By winning the European League, the team earned its place in the Champions League. Now we will compete against the best teams in Europe. That is an enormous source of motivation," Parrondo says. On the other side is Ivan Čupić, in his second season on the bench of the club where he played for five years as a right winger - and where he won that same title, under that same coach.

Čupić and Gogov are not playing with words: "Melsungen are the favourites"

Vardar have the better head-to-head record - four meetings, three wins for Skopje, one for the Germans. And these are not fixtures from the archive: the last two duels were only half a year ago, in the main round of the 2025/26 European League, when Vardar won both at home and away - against the side that went on to lift the trophy. Even so, Čupić does not want any of those results entered into this account.

"We expect a completely different match from the ones we played against Melsungen last season. This is the opening of the Champions League, the opponent has a full squad and comes in as the favourite. Our task is to show we are ready for this competition and to fight for a positive result in Germany," the coach said. Captain and goalkeeper Vasil Gogov adds: "We expect a hard match against a strong opponent with a deep squad, capable of threatening from both nine and six metres. Our team has great potential, but we have to keep working hard." Vardar are Macedonian champions from last season and this is their sixteenth campaign in the elite.

New format: 24 teams, six groups and six matches with nowhere to hide

This season the Champions League runs on a new system - the first change since all European club competitions were reformed ahead of the 2020/21 season. Instead of the previous 16, the group phase features 24 teams, split into six groups of four. The top two from each group go through to the main round, the other 12 continue in the EHF European League play-offs.

The effect is mathematically brutal. The group phase now lasts only six rounds instead of fourteen, which means one bad day does far more damage than it did last year. Every team that reaches the Final Four will play exactly 18 matches - six in the group, eight in the main round, two in the quarter-finals and two in Cologne. Previously some teams got there on 18 matches and others on 20, depending on the route. It has been evened out, but at the cost of the margin for error. Vardar return to precisely the format that punishes teams which need time to find their rhythm.

Drama at Biljanini Izvori: Atanasijević saved Pelister in the last second

The first big derby of the men's Super League justified every expectation. In Ohrid, RK Ohrid and Eurofarm Pelister drew 28:28 after a match in which the lead changed until the final attack. Pelister started stronger and led 6:8, but the hosts came back and in the 21st minute went ahead for the first time at 11:10. At half-time it was the Bitola side again - 13:14.

The second half was the same story. Ohrid led 18:16 in the 37th minute, and the resolution came in the closing seconds: Ohrid were a step from victory, but Petar Atanasijević scored in the last second and levelled it at 28:28. The top scorers were Dominik Mathe with 11 goals for Ohrid and Filip Kuzmanovski with 10 for Pelister. A draw is fairer than any win - but for the home crowd that is thin comfort when victory disappears in the final second. Next up are Struga for Ohrid and Monte Essen at home for Pelister.

Tomovski with seven saves, but Bietigheim fell to Lemgo

Macedonian international goalkeeper Martin Tomovski played another solid match in the German Bundesliga, but Bietigheim lost at home to Lemgo 29:36. Tomovski recorded seven saves and in stretches of the game was the reason his team stayed in it at all.

Seven excellent interventions and a seven-goal defeat - that is the whole story of a goalkeeper in a team that does not help him. For years Macedonian handball has exported its players one by one, to benches where every good game of theirs is recorded as personal statistics rather than as a result. Tomovski is at a club fighting in the lower half of the table; his saves there are consumable material. If Vardar show on Thursday that they can stay with Melsungen, at least we will have one story in which Macedonian handball is not measured through somebody else's defeat.