Macedonians take place in eight-finals

Bosnia and Herzegovina - Macedonia 22:25 (11:13)

Macedonia have secured a spot in the eight-finals after a 25:22 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina. Both teams provided a very enjoyable match to the fans in this Balkan clash in Ali Bin Hamad Al Atiyya in Al Sadd. This win sees the Macedonians continue their winning streak in Qatar. The Macedonians got upper hand from the start, thanks to a well-organised defense which had no trouble stopping the Bosnians in attack. The only problem was how to find a way past goalie Benjamin Buric, who was by far the best for the Bosnians.

Saving a few balls in the opening few minutes prevented the total collapse of his outfit, but still Bosnian head-coach Dragan Markovic had to call a time-out as his team stayed scoreless for the first seven minutes (4:0). The first goal came from team captain Muhamed Toromanovic, but Macedonian playmaker Filip Mirkulovski replied with his third putting them 6:1 up after 11 minutes of play. That moment was a turning point in the match; Bosnian attacks became more organised with Ivan Karacic leading the pack, while on the other side, the defensive block prevented Kiril Lazarov from scoring from nine meter line. The "King of goal scorers" hit the net only three times from the 7- meter line in 60 minutes. The Bosnians hit six goals without reply to take the lead after 20 minutes (7:6).

Finally, after nine minutes without a goal, Stojance Stoilov put the run of bad luck to bed for the Macedonians with an equalizer. Macedonian playmaker Naumce Mojsovski scored two further goals which put them three goals up 11:8 with only three minutes left in the half. His teammate between the posts, Borko Ristovski saved a few shots securing his team's half-time lead (13:11). This head-to-head got a whole new dimension when an end-to-end shootout began at the start of the second half. A lot of spectacular goals and assist plus some amazing saves by Buric and Ristovski provided a pleasant experience for the spectators. The teams stayed leveled until Nemanja Pribak scored twice to push Macedonia two in front (20:18) on the 48th minute. The Macedonians were able to keep the two-goal advantage until the bench called a time-out on the 56th minute mark (23:21). Renato Vugrinec put his team up three with the next attack, which was sufficient to see them take their third win in a row. The top scorer for the winning team was Dejan Manaskov with six goals, while Senjamin Buric and Dejan Malinovic netted four each for the Bosnians.