Serbian derby of returnees and rookies

Vojvodina

Best Serbian teams from the season behind us - SEHA returnees Vojvodina Novi Sad and rookies Dinamo Pancevo will at Slana bara meet at the beginning of SEHA League’s seventh edition. Home team will look to prolong domination after winning domestic title last season and being active during the summer signing some big names like former Serbian NT player and silver medallist back from 2012 EURO Nenad Vuckovic as well as Bozidar Nadovez to replace players who decided to leave Serbian north like Milos Orbovic, Luka and Nikola Arsenic, Zivan Pesic etc..

On the other side, club of rich handball tradition, Dinamo Pancevo is still flying on wings of a great season they’ve had last year entering Serbian Super Liga as rookies and finishing second. Visitors will most likely this season again heavily lean on their experienced all-around player Petar Zujovic who can surely be a role model for all the youngsters. They’ve also managed to add experienced goalie Dusan Petrovic to the roster who will surely provide an additional boost to a team led by coach Ivan Petkovic. Situation around the appearance of backs Distol and Radanovic is still under a question mark ahead of their trip to Novi Sad as well as whether pivot Jelic and winger Pilipovic will be fully ready due to minor injuries they are at the moment dealing with. Teams met four times last season with Vojvodina coming out on top twice (28:25, 27:23), Pancevo taking one (31:24) as well as 24:24 draw.

Bosko Rudic, Vojvodina coach:
We’ll play against a team we know well. They’ve managed to sign many experienced players and have great motive as this will be their rookie SEHA season. We’re glad to be back after a year-long break. In this competition each team must have a big roster of quality players ready to play. We’re still working on synchronizing every aspect of our game but so do the others. At this moment we can’t promise anything but a great fight.

Vukasin Stojanovic, Vojvodina player:
It’s a great pleasure to be a part of the SEHA League which whoch gathers best clubs in the region again. This is one of  Europe’s strongest competitions as we will compete against reigning CL champions Vardar and famous teams like Zagreb, Meshkov or Tatran - serious teams with big budgets and high ambitions. These are all good teams of course, as well as our first opponents Dinamo. We’re ready.

Ivan Petkovic, Dinamo Pancevo coach:
We will open SEHA League with a Serbian derby. I can’t say I’m satisfied with our health status ahead of the match. Ivan Distol will play on his own risk in Novi Sad but despite of everything we’re going through we’re going there to give our best against Vojvodina. Their biggest advantage will be experience of their players. I have to say it is great honour for us to be a part of SEHA League after achieving it with last season’s results.

Petar Zujovic, Dinamo Pancevo player:
I wish all the best to all the teams in the league. Our fans are surely expecting a whole lot of fighting spirit from us and that will be our main goal for the season. We’ve both experienced quite a few roster changes during the summer so it’s hard to predict anything. We will give our best to travel home satisfies that’s for sure. 

Match will be broadcasted on Arena Sport channels (SVK, CRO, MNE, MKD, SRB, BIH) as well as on Sport TV (SLO).