Zorka sports hall will on Thursday (17.00 CET) host a clash between two teams whose rivalry goes all the way back to 1980's when the two were dominating Yugoslavian League – one of the best handball competitions in Europe at that point. In what will be their second encounter of the season Metaloplastika Sabac will welcome Macedonian Eurofarm Pelister. In their premier face-off this season in Bitola hosts managed to deliver a strong second-half performance eventually celebrating with 30:26. Metaloplastika are however in a good rhythm at the moment with four national championship wins in a row and they'll surely look to take revenge against former Croatian national team coach Zeljko Babic and his guys. Last season Metaloplastika celebrated at home against the team from Bitola with 27:26 which is why you definitely can't afford to miss this one. Match will be broadcasted live on Arena Sport channels, Sport Klub (Poland) and RTS (Serbia).

Veselin Vukovic, Metaloplastika Sabac coach:

Moment is far from ideal for us – between two important national league games. Of course, despite of all this, I hope we’ll manage to deliver a solid resistance and defeat Eurofarm Pelister. Goal is to deliver another good performance like we did in our premier encounter of the season against them and hope for the best.

Luka Mitrovic, Metaloplastika Sabac player:

After a week-long break it’s time to get back and catch the right rhythm which is much needed considering how busy the schedule is. We won’t get out there against Eurofarm carrying a white flag that’s for sure. We want to play a good match on a European level and see where it takes us.

Zeljko Babic, Eurofarm Pelister coach:

Match in Bitola against Metaloplastika was really difficult coming right before the winter break when we’re no longer as focused as we should be. We’ve had a few problems in the first half of that game but in the second we managed to find solutions, especially defensively and a few great individual plays on the other side of the court helped us seal the deal in that one.

Dejan Kukulovski, Eurofarm Pelister player:

I have to say I’m feeling well coming back from an injury. Return was a bit slower than expected but I’m finally ready. We did not have much time to prepare for Metaloplastika but we’re definitely going to Sabac with victory in our minds. They have a really good team which means we’ll have to deliver a great performance to achieve that.