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Macedonia – Luxembourg 41-23: Horiha’s debut in front of 3,000 fans
The men’s national team opened their EHF EURO 2028 qualifying campaign exactly as expected: 41-23 (20-10) against Luxembourg at the Boris Trajkovski Sports Centre, in front of around 3,000 spectators. Nikola Kosteski top-scored with six goals, Petkovski and Serafimov added five each, and goalkeeper Martin Tomovski made 13 saves. The night, though, belonged to Dmytro Horiha, a former Ukraine international: before throw-off he sang the Macedonian anthem, as he had promised, and on his debut he scored three goals. Head coach Kiril Lazarov admitted he’d had little time to prepare and that the new player needed to fit into the system. It was Macedonia’s seventh win over Luxembourg in their head-to-head record, and nobody expected anything different.
Sweden sort out Greece: next stop is the away game on Sunday
In Group 8, Sunday’s opponents Greece lost to Sweden 33-24. The Swedes settled it after the break, with Albin Lagergren scoring seven, while Theodoros Boskos led Greece with eight. Macedonia travel to Greece on Sunday, while Luxembourg face Sweden in the same round. «We did what we agreed, now we’re going for a win in Greece too,» said Petkovski. Greece at home is not Luxembourg, and that’s exactly where we’ll find out how much Horiha’s quick integration was worth.
Croatia break their own record with 46 goals, Serbia and Slovenia show no mercy
Croatia started their road to EURO 2028 with a 46-28 win over Lithuania, the most goals they’ve ever scored in a qualifier, beating the previous 40 against Turkey in 2015. Ivan Martinović scored 10. Iceland beat Ukraine 48-26, also a national record, and the Faroe Islands beat Kosovo 37-30. Serbia flattened Estonia 39-18, Slovenia beat Bosnia and Herzegovina 38-28, and Hungary, with new head coach László Sótonyi on the bench, beat Montenegro 32-21. The first round is always where the favourites pile up goals, but few have piled up as many as the Croats.
Denmark and Spain 28-28: Gidsel with nine goals, a point in the last two minutes
In the first round of the EHF EURO Cup, Denmark and Spain drew 28-28. Spain led 28-26 two minutes from the end, but the Danes levelled, Imanol Garciandia missed 55 seconds before the buzzer, and Johan Hansen and Simon Pytlick failed to take the last chance to win it. Mathias Gidsel was top scorer with nine goals, goalkeeper Emil Nielsen made 14 saves, and for Spain Petar Cikuša scored six. Before the game four Danes received EHF awards, among them Nielsen as most valuable player and best goalkeeper. The Danes collected their awards before throw-off, and only scraped the point at the very end.
Peševski auctions a shirt signed by the national team for Stefan
Žarko Peševski has put up for charity auction a Macedonia national team shirt signed by every player from the last match against Romania at the European Championship. The money will go toward the treatment of Stefan Petruševski, who suffered serious spinal injuries after an electric shock and a fall from height, and who must continue his treatment at a specialised facility abroad. The starting price is 6,000 denars, the auction runs until 9 pm tonight (Friday), and anyone interested can contact Peševski by private message. «Humanity knows no borders, religion or nationality,» he wrote. We’re used to watching handball players fight for every goal; this match is for something far more important.
