The first few minutes of this young game between ALPLA HC Hard and HC Eurofarm Pelister 2 are characterized by the first approach of both teams on the plate. The fans in the Harder Teufelsarena ensure a great atmosphere right from the start. The guests score the first goal, Filip Arsenovski scores in the 4th minute to make it 1-0. On the part of the Harder hosts, backcourt shooter Karolis Antanavičius scored the first goal in front of the home crowd. Winger Luca Raschle puts the Red Devils ahead for the first time (2:1, 8th minute) – Dejan Kukulovski equalized to make it 2:2 just a few seconds later.
This scene is to be repeated before the Red Devils increase their lead to 6:3 (15th minute) thanks to a successful 3:0 run by Paul Schwärzler, Luca Raschle and Ivan Horvat. However, Harder’s pull away is prevented by the guests from North Macedonia, who always find a way to successfully break through Harder’s defence. The 7:8th goal comes from Dejan Kukulovski (20th minute). ALPLA HC Hard’s goalkeeper Golub Doknic lives up to his nickname “the witcher” in his first game of the new season and saves the first two 7-meters, for Pavle Petrovic and Hristijan Mitrevski there is no getting past. After a 4-goal lead by the Harder hosts (11:7, 24th minute), the young team from HC Eurofarm Pelister 2 was able to halve their deficit once more before the break. With a two-goal lead and a half-time score of 13:11, the Red Devils return to the dressing room.
After changing sides back on the plate, the two teams fight a hard fight in an exciting and close game and fight for every ball. After 40 minutes of play, it is 16:15 for ALPLA HC Hard. Only a few minutes later, Ivan Horvat, who sees the red card following a challenge with Petar Atanaseivik, is over for the day. We have to put up with this setback, but the Red Devils keep fighting, give everything and act with concentration on the field. Hard’s ball win means that the Red Devils can build up their lead once more – Luca Raschle, the top scorer with a total of 7 goals tonight, makes it 19:16 (48th minute).
Keeper Golub Doknic continues to present himself as strong as a bear between the posts and heralds the crunch time of this game with another TOP save. 120 seconds before the end of the 60 minutes, the Red Devils build up a 5-goal lead for the first time (24:19, 58th minute), but cannot bring it over time. The last two hits in this today
Game falls on the part of the guests. The double strike by Dimitrij Blazhevski and Stefan Talevski brings the guests to 21:24, which also means the final score of this exciting first game between ALPLA HC Hard and HC Eurofarm Pelister 2 in the first leg of the EHF European League Qualification Round 1.
With the 24:21 (13:11) win in their luggage, the boys from ALPLA HC Hard will be heading to North Macedonia next week for the second leg, where the Red Devils will be fighting for entry on Sunday, September 4th, 2022 (7 p.m.). fight for qualifying round 2.
Lukas Schweighofer, ALPLA HC Hard: “In this game we were able to pull away with plus four goals. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to get that across the game over time. Our too-simple mistakes brought Pelister 2 back into play and let it get closer to us. That mustn’t happen to us, especially not at home in front of this fantastic crowd of fans. We will analyze today’s game carefully and prepare well for the second leg next week. We’re going to North Macedonia motivated, we’re going full throttle and we’ll do everything we can to win as high as possible away from home.”
Martin Ivanovski, HC Eurofarm Pelister 2: „We knew, this was going to be a though game in Hard. We already saw on the video, that ALPLA HC Hard is a really great team. I think, today we made too many technical mistakes and this led to an result like this in the end. Next week we’ll fight until the end and we’ll give our best to win the second game in Bitola.“
The top scorers
ALPLA HC Hard – Luca Raschle (7), Ivan Horvat (4), Paul Schwärzler (3), Nico Schnabl (3), Srdjan Predragović (3)
HC Eurofarm Pelister 2 – Pavle Petrovic (5), Filip Arsenovski (5), Ivan Dimitrovski (3), Martin Ivanovski (3)
preview
Qualifying Round 1 – EHF European League Men | second leg
HC Eurofarm Pelister 2 (MKD) vs. ALPLA HC Hard
Sunday, September 4, 2022, beginning at 7:00 p.m. | Sports Hall Boro Curlevski, Bitola/North Macedonia