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HC Alkaloid is gearing up for another European challenge in the EHF European Cup, where our team is on the brink of reaching the quarter-finals. The rematch with the Italian club HC Brixen follows a commanding 12-goal victory in the first leg in Italy.

In anticipation of the second clash, set to take place in Skopje, HC Alkaloid held a press conference, where coach Kiril Lazarov addressed the media. The coach confirmed that he will have all key players available, and the team’s ambitions remain high—to continue winning.

“For me, it was somewhat unexpected, especially at this time of the year, to secure such a convincing victory against a strong Italian opponent. We know that their handball, both at the national and club level, is on the rise, so this large goal difference was surprising. We played a solid match, everything went our way, but the result from Italy is not entirely realistic. We pulled away in the final minutes, it was only a four-goal advantage by the 50th minute. We won’t underestimate the opponent, even though I believe we are the better team. The players performed excellently, and now we have the return match in Skopje with the same opponent. I want and expect us to win, both for our ranking and for Macedonian handball. We’ve prepared well for this match and will be ready to face Brixen.

Experience tells me that we need to focus on each upcoming opponent, and now it is Brixen from Italy. Our schedule is tight, but we must take on this challenge. We know we have a match against Eurofarm Pelister coming up, but we have to give our best against everyone. We haven’t decided on the tactics yet, we’ll have to see how the match unfolds on Saturday. Our thoughts will be in Bitola, but we need to focus on finishing this task first. I don’t want any slip-ups that could harm our confidence.

We’ve had numerous discussions on this subject, especially given our strong advantage. Ideally, we’d like to face a less challenging opponent. While there are some lower-ranked teams in the draw, every team in the TOP-8 is of high quality and competes at an EHF European League level,” said Lazarov.

HC Alkaloid’s right-back, Martin Velkovski, also spoke to the press. Following a fantastic World Championship with Macedonia, Velkovski has fully committed to the club and continues to perform at a high level.

“We’re facing the Italian vice-champions again. The result in Italy was a big margin, but the game was much closer. They play modern, fast-paced handball, but we are the stronger team, and I believe we can secure another victory. I urge our fans to back us, and together, we’ll celebrate our qualification for the quarter-finals. The match in Italy was high-scoring due to the fast tempo. It’s hard to maintain a strong defence in a game with so many goals, but I think the match in Skopje will have a similar pace to the one in Italy, and we’ll see more goals again,” said Velkovski.

The upcoming match against Brixen will be HC Alkaloid’s sixth European fixture this season. In the EHF European Cup, besides the 44-32 victory in Italy, our club previously triumphed over West Vien from Austria (38-27 and 32-29) and Dragunas Klaipeda from Lithuania (42-31 and 37-31) with two victories in the two-legged ties.

The return leg between HC Alkaloid and SSV Brixen will take place on Saturday at 18:00 in the Avtokomanda Arena.