It is fair to say SEHA - Gazprom League’s derby of the round completely met the expectations. Match was narrow and eye-pleasing with hosts in the end grabbing 24:23 victory climbing League’s table all the way to the second place. Points in matches against direct opponents in Final 4 race are always specially important with Meshkov Brest making a big step towards booking a ticket for League’s final weekend for themselves with a win over PPD Zagreb in front of their fans tonight. 

Both teams entered the match well as they were quite aware of the importance match has for either side. They were fully focused, hustled for every possession putting extra effort in on the defensive side of the court. Result was levelled all the way to 8:8 with a bit more than 5 minutes left to play in the first. After that hosts made a 3:0 series which helped them widen the gap and take control of the match. 

In first few minutes of the second they even managed to extend the lead to five but after that guests started playing way better in defense slowly closing the gap. In the end they even had a chance to take a point home from Brest but three seconds was just not enough for them to create a good scoring opportunity with Zarko Markovic’ half-court shot failing to pass Meshkov’ blocks on its way to their net.

Goalies played an important part on both sides today. However, we must highlight Ivan Pesic and his amazing 17 saves today (three of which from 7-meter line) which was definitely the best individual effort of the night. Urh Kastelic on the other hand finished the match with 10, Arian Jovic added four.