PPD Zagreb suffer a narrow defeat against Metalurg which might endanger their F4 position

Аутсајдерот Металург му ја компликува позицијата на ППД Загреб

Metalurg - Zagreb

Croatian champions PPD Zagreb have with a 22:25 defeat in Skopje against Metalurg endangered their chances for catching a place on SEHA F4 tournament. Guests were given a favorite role ahead of this one but failed to prove it on the court playing good for only 30 minutes which is not enough. Team from Zagreb had a few of its key players sidelined for this match due to health issues but that does not make Metalurg’s performance less good and surprising. Tomovski was their most valuable player in this one finishing the match with 15 saves most of which in the middle of the second half which was a period in which hosts managed to enlarge the gap to 5 (19:14), keeping it open all the way until the end for their fourth win of the season.

Lino Cervar, Metalurg coach:

We’ve used the opportunity we had. I am satisfied with this one, great victory. We were good in 7-on-6 pieces and were a bit lucky with excellent Tomovski today. What makes me happy is that we’re confident it attack. However, we have to forget about this match as soon as possible and focus on clash against Chehovskie Medvedi.

Martin Tomovski, Metalurg goalkeeper:

We did not open the match well missing too many open shots and committing many technical errors. However, we’ve managed to catch our rhythm, mostly by playing better in defense. We’ve enlarged the gap on my saves and some great attacking solutions and were able to keep it like that all the way until the end.

Silvio Ivandija, PPD Zagreb coach:

Great tactical match from coach Cervar. We’ve experienced problems playing without Horvat, Cingesar, Sebetic and Jotic. Two of them have high fever and two were injured during the practice. This is however not an excuse for anything. Hosts were excellent today and our attack was not functioning well. Despite of this I still believe we will have a chance to win upcoming CL match in case we correct these things.

Dobrivoje Markovic, PPD Zagreb player:

This was a tough match to open the second part of the season and a well-deserved win for Metalurg. We've opened the match well but our performance was not on the same level later and on top of all that their goalie started making some great saves.