Vardar returns to the Champions League after four years, and tickets are already on sale

Macedonian handball champions RK Vardar are back in the elite and on 16 September play their first home game in the Champions League against France's Nantes. The club has already put tickets on sale, online only. Prices come in three tiers: 600 denars for sectors A1 to A6, 500 denars for most blocks including sector G, and 400 denars for blocks 1, 2, 9 and sector A. The game starts at 18:45 at the Jane Sandanski sports centre. Group B also contains Germany's Melsungen and Poland's Wisła Płock, and Vardar open the season away in Germany on 10 September. Four years of waiting for this evening. The question is not whether the hall will fill up, but how long the return will last.

Alkaloid opened the championship with a lesson at Avtokomanda

RK Alkaloid began the new men's Super League season with a convincing win in the "fraternal" derby at Avtokomanda against Multi Essence. Coach Lazarov went with a mixed lineup - and that was enough. After the first 30 minutes the Skopje side already led 16:11, and in the second half they only raised the tempo. Damjan Mitev was the most efficient with nine goals, while for the opposition David Trajkovski and Gorazd Damčevski scored six each. In the same slot Prilep beat Kumanovo 38:31. When the favourite plays a second-choice lineup and still leads by five at half-time, that says something about the favourite and about the league it plays in.

Rojević stays in Ohrid until 2029 - the man who brought the first European trophy

GRK Ohrid has extended its contract with coach Boris Rojević until 2029, and this is no ordinary signature. Under his leadership the "gladiators" won the EHF European Cup last season, reached the final of the Macedonian Cup and finished the championship in third place. The management has meanwhile strengthened the roster and increased the budget, with an openly stated goal - fighting for the title. Alongside the domestic championship, the team also has the Regional League and Europe ahead. "Together we wrote history and won the first European trophy," the club said. In Macedonian sport, where a coach is replaced after three bad games, a four-year deal with a man who has already delivered a trophy is almost a revolutionary move. The question is whether Ohrid will hold to its own promise when the first bad month arrives.

The women's Champions League started, and home advantage meant nothing

The first round of the EHF Women's Champions League ended with something rarely seen - all four matches were won by the away sides. Defending champions Metz opened their title defence with 32:23 at Storhamar, with goalkeeper Sabrina Novotna making 15 saves. CSM Bucharest won 37:29 at Krim, extending Krim's winless run in the competition to ten matches. Esbjerg crushed Borussia Dortmund 33:24, and Henny Reistad, last season's top scorer with 131 goals, added another ten. If home advantage is worth nothing in the first round, what will it be worth in the quarter-finals?

Podravka fell at home, and Győr still holds the record with seven titles

The tightest game of the round was played in Koprivnica: Győr beat Podravka 26:23, in a match the Croatians opened 2:0 and in which Katarina Pandža scored six goals by half-time. Player of the match was Tjaša Stanko, who finished with eight goals, five of them from seven-metre throws - and that against the club she played for in 2019/20. Győr let a third consecutive title slip against Metz in last season's final, but remain the team with the most trophies in the competition - seven, all won in the last 14 seasons. For a Balkan viewer this is a familiar pattern: the Croatian club climbs step by step, while the Hungarian one starts again from the top. The difference is made by the budget, not the desire.