photo: EPA-EFE/Tibor Illyes

Macedonia wins big point against Hungary in first match of 2025 World Cup

Today, in the first round of Group D in the preliminary phase of the World Championship, the Macedonian men's senior handball team played a 27:27 draw against Hungary in Varaždin.

The team of coach Kiril Lazarov had great support from the fans in the stands. Before the start of the match, our best handball players were aware that they had an opponent in front of them who was the favorite in the group and one of the candidates for a medal at this World Championship.

photo: EPA-EFE/Tibor Illyes

But the Macedonian team played excellently and fought hard and never showed a white flag during the match. During the first half, the Hungarians took a 5:2 lead at the start, and then Macedonia responded with a 5:0 run for 8:6 on the scoreboard.

We maintained a positive "plus three" position, mostly thanks to Mitrevski's saves and Kuzmanovski's goals. We were 13:10, then 14:11, but the Hungarians did not give up on the rhythm, and at the break they managed to equalize and draw 14:14.

It was a goal-for-goal game from the beginning of the second half, with both teams alternating between leading by no more than one goal. We had 16:15, then the Hungarian players came back with 17:16 and 18:17. Then, we led 20:19, then the rival came out with a 21:20 lead.

photo: EPA-EFE/Tibor Illyes

It was a tight end game, we scored a goal for 25:24, and the Hungarians tied the game four minutes before the end of the match. With three minutes left, Jagurinovski, as a winger, scored for 26:25, but Bodo immediately made sure of another tie on the scoreboard.

Kuzmanovski took over again from nine meters for 27:26 with just over a minute and a half left. Mitrevski shone again on goal, saving Bodo's shot to the great joy of the players and fans.

Before our next attack, Lazarov called a timeout with 36 seconds left in the match. We failed in our action, Hungary managed to equalize on the counterattack and get a point. The most efficient player in our selection was Kuzmanovski with 10 goals, and goalkeeper Mitrevski had 14 saves.

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