Vardar 31:19, Tomovski With 13 Saves in Germany: Macedonian Handball Opened the Season on Two Fronts

Vardar started like a champion: 31:19 against the young Bitola side, but the real test is in Germany

The title defence began exactly as everyone expected. Vardar beat the second team of Eurofarm Pelister 31:19 in the opening match of the Super League. The visitors kept pace for precisely eight minutes, up to 4:4, and then Vardar shifted up a gear and finished the first half 18:9. The second half was a pure formality. Faduli scored six goals, Mitrović and Tuzolana five each. For Ivan Čupić's side this was the last check before something seriously different: the first match in the Champions League against Melsungen, in Germany, on 10 September at 20:45. A twelve-goal margin against a second team means nothing in Kassel. It only means the machine has started.

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

Boris Rojević has extended his contract with HC Ohrid through 2029, and this is no routine renewal. Under his leadership the "gladiators" won the EHF European Cup last season - the club's first European trophy in its history - 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 aim: fighting for the title. Besides the domestic championship, Ohrid this season also has the Regional League and Europe. A four-year contract in Macedonian club sport is almost exotic - here coaches usually change faster than the shirts. That a club has decided to build rather than react is news in itself.

Tomovski with 13 saves against Kiel - more than Wolff and Pérez de Vargas combined, and still a defeat

There are statistics that flatter you and still end in a loss. Martin Tomovski, the Macedonian international goalkeeper, made 13 saves against Kiel - more than Andreas Wolff and Gonzalo Pérez de Vargas combined (2 and 9). Bietigheim still lost 36:28, because the "zebras" keep a high tempo for a full sixty minutes and leave no room for error. In the first round Tomovski had 15 interventions and was among the keys to the win over Wetzlar. Next up is Lemgo. A Macedonian outplaying two goalkeepers with European titles in the Bundesliga is not an accident - that is a player looking for a wealthier club.

Barcelona is the first favourite even without the MVP: the Champions League season starts with 24 teams

Preseason rankings for the EHF Champions League put Barcelona at the top, even though the Catalans lost two key players this summer, among them last season's MVP Emil Nielsen. The target is a thirteenth trophy. Finalist Füchse Berlin dropped behind Magdeburg, Aalborg and Veszprém - Lasse Andersson left, there is no replacement, and goalkeeper Dejan Milosavljev went to Kielce. The Poles meanwhile were left without a single member of the Dujshebaev family for the first time, so they filled the ranks with Milosavljev, Klarica and Bos. The biggest structural change is a different one: the competition expands from 16 to 24 teams, with one knockout round fewer. More teams, a shorter road to Cologne - a formula that suits those who have spent years getting stuck in exactly that play-off stage.

Podravka against Győr: ten head-to-head matches, ten defeats, not a single point

The women's Champions League opens with a duel history has already written. Podravka hosts Győr in Koprivnica - the record holder for most titles and last season's finalist - and in ten meetings between 2007 and 2021 the Croatians have taken not a single point. They came closest in October 2010 away from home, when they lost by just two goals, 27:25. The heaviest blow came in September 2020: 43:28. The two teams already met this summer - Győr won 37:24 in a friendly in August. Podravka has 29 Croatian titles and 28 cups and is untouchable at home, but in Europe it runs into a wall with a Hungarian name. Sometimes the biggest obstacle is not an unresolved match, but the memory of ten previous ones.