Vardar has managed to stay on League’s top after a clear and dominant 40:29 (20:13) victory in ‘Zlatorog’ sports hall against Celje. Derby between SEHA League’s leaders was actually far from that due to Vardar’s brilliant performance and a routine victory.

Hosts were able to keep up in first 15 minutes and 7:7 after which Raul Gonzales’ boys made 8:1 series led by flying Timur Dibirov who has finished the match with 8 goals. After first 30 it was already 20:13.

In the second half Celje clearly wanted to reduce the gap and come closer. They were doing well in opening minutes of the second part with Razgor scoring two goals to bring his team back to -5. However, Gonzales called a quick TO preventing any kind of a narrow finish. Borozan, Dujshebaev and Shishkarev were focused in the end to bring Vardar back on +8 (23:31) after which they were able to easily sail towards what might in the end prove to be a very important victory.

Raul Gonzales, Vardar coach:
First of all I have to say that Celje are a very good team with good players and coach. We’ve prepared this match well knowing what it is like to play here as we’ve already played here two years ago. Match was good for us, our 5-1 defense was great just like our transition. We’ve managed to open the gap to 4-5 goals in the first half which was crucial. It did look easy but it was not and I have a lot of respect for our rivals. Good match for us.  

Arpad Sterbik, Vardar goalkeeper:
We’ve scored a lot of easy counter-attack goals. Celje has a good team.We know that we will play here once again.I was not sure if we’ll win here today and I now have even more doubts considering the match we’ll play here in Cl because a bad night like this doesn’t occur twice for a team like Celje.  

Branko Tamse, Celje Pivovarna Lasko coach:
First of all congrats to Vardar and their coach. They didn't let us surprise them. They were 100% ready, Arpad had his day and their win is deserved. There were some things which I didn't like. We’ve had too many unforced errors and were struggling with shooting percentage which was enough to give Vardar a chance to point the match in a direction they wanted and enlarge the gap after first 15 minutes of balanced game. There is a lot of work ahead of us but not too much time. We have to regenerate. We’ve played five matches in two weeks. Obviously, away matches in Presov and Ljubuski affected form of my players. They’ve made some mistakes, which I am sure, they wouldn't make in some other situations. These are no excuses however. I take full responsibility for those mistakes. On the other hand, our goal remains the same and that is to try to win each match. Matches against favored opponents are however showing us that we still have to work on some aspects of the game.  

David Razgor, Celje Pivovarna Lasko player:
We can't afford to lose by 11-goal difference. We’ve opened the match well playing balanced match with them after which they’ve managed to enlarge the gap and routinely bring the match to a close. Despite of playing against favored teams we can’t afford to lose with such a big difference. We were on road last two weeks and it was pretty exhausting playing Wednesday - Sunday but we have to find reasons for such defeat among ourselves. I believe we’ll get back to winning track when we manage to bounce back from this bad rhythm we’re in.