In Friday’s first SEHA - Gazprom League semi-final, Vardar Skopje, winner of the regular round, will face fourth ranked side of PPD Zagreb for a spot in the final. Both sides already clashed four times in two different competitions this season, both each won their respective home matches, now they duel on neutral ground in Brest, Belarus.

Semi-final 1: Vardar Skopje (MKD) vs PPD Zagreb (CRO)

Friday, 7 April, 18:30 local time (17:30 CET)

The sixth edition of the Final4 SEHA - Gazprom League is being carried out in Brest this weekend, and for the sixth time at a final tournament of this competition, Vardar and Zagreb lock their horns. In 2013, the Croats won the final 25:24 after extra time. 2012 (30:29), 2014 (30:22) and 2016 (26:24) Vardar took the upper hand in the semi-finals, in 2015, Zagreb won the bronze final 26:23.

In terms of semi-final results and the season performances, Vardar seem to be in the favourite role in the fourth semi-final pairing of both powerhouses of European club handball. But the Croatian record champions are boosted by the surprising change of their coach: Since Monday, former PPD and Croatian national team coach and player Slavko Goluza intermediately took over the helm from Silvio Ivandija, who had replaced Veselin Vujovic last autumn. Before Goluza will become coach of Slovak SEHA - Gazprom League participant Tatran Presov from this summer on, he now is responsible for the last matches of the current season at PPD including the Final4 at Brest.

On the other hand, Vardar coach Raul Gonzalez got an additional job: He was just appointed new head coach of the Macedonian national team, succeeding on Lino Cervar, who will take over the Croatian team on their way to the home EURO 2018.

In the regular season of the SEHA Gazprom League, Zagreb had been the only team, which managed to beat later-on first ranked side. On home ground, PPD took a 28:26 victory, and at Skopje they only lost by a one goal margin (31:32).

In the EHF Champions League, the outcome of both former SEHA Gazprom League winners, which faced in the same group, was different this season.  Zagreb took the sixth position in group B to make it to the Last16, where they were eliminated by defending SEHA Gazprom League champions Telekom Veszprem. On the other end of the table, Vardar for the first time in club history became group winner, thus skipped the Last16 to now face 2014 Champions League winners Flensburg in the quarter-finals end of April, hoping for their first ever ticket for the Final4 in Cologne.

The direct Champions League duels again ended with a levelled outcome: Zagreb won 28:27 on home ground were defeated by 20:25 at the Macedonian capital.

Best scorers of the semi-finalist in the regular SEHA - Gazprom League season were Timur Dibirov (Vardar/84 goals) and Stipe Mandalinic (Zagreb/79). Though Vardar finished on top of the table, they only had the third best attack and the fifth best defence of the ten SEHA Gazprom League teams so far. Zagreb could count on the second best defence, but only were eighth ranked in terms of attack.

In the history of the SEHA - Gazprom League, Vardar rose the trophy twice (2012, 2014), while Zagreb stroke back in 2013 - and both sides had been the only teams to be part of all final tournaments so far.