Golden era continues: Vardar are the champions of Europe again!

Kristopans D

The last day of the EHF Champions League season started with a 3rd place match, where Barca Lassa defeated PGE Vive Kielce 40:35. However, the main match of the day belonged to Vardar and Telekom Veszprem, and the final was well worth a wait.

Vardar - Telekom Veszprem 27:24 (16:10)

The final started like it was expected. Tough play on both sides, and not much separating the team in the first 10 minutes. However, when Dibirov scored a beautiful fast break for 6:4, Vardar started to look even better. Rogerio Moraes, who played his final match before joining Veszprem in the summer, played his heart out, and had 4 goals after 16 minutes. Karacic and Stoilov looked incredible once again. Skube scored a beauty for 13:9, Milosavljev made a few saves, and after Skube's third goal, the SEHA – Gazprom League champions went up 16:10. Hungarians did manage to pull one back before the break, and it was 16:11 with 30 minutes left until the winner is crowned.

Veszprem had a brilliant start to the second half! After Karacic scored for 17:11, the Hungarians scored five unanswered goals, led by Nenadic, and they forced Roberto Parrondo to call a time-out. Tough play continued, goals were scored on both sides, and with just over 10 minutes left, Vardar led 22:20, after Moraes scored another fantastic goal. Ghedbane had a huge save which enabled Vardar to restore a three-goal lead, with 8 minutes remaining. Vardar had composure, the players knew what they need to do in the last few minutes to win the biggest trophy in club handball! With just over three minutes left, Dejan Milosavljev made maybe the biggest save of his career, and later Ivan Cupic made it 26:23! The final score was 27:24, and all players, Skopje and the entire country celebrated! Against all odds, Vardar became the champions of Europe for the second time!