Draw first friendly of the National Men’s Handball

The first friendly of the national men’s handball in the preparation in Thessaloniki ended with a draw. The representative group drew 29-29 with North Macedonia in front of 400 spectators and many children from the city’s academies, as part of the two teams’ preparations for EURO 2024.

The federal technician, Giorgos Zaravinas, had the opportunity for tests, but also for conclusions.

In the 51st minute, Savvas Savvas left the field after being pulled in the air by Jagurinovski, after landing badly on his left leg and his condition will be monitored by the medical staff of the National Team for precautionary reasons.

“It was a very strong friendly, which we needed at the start of the preparations for the EURO. We faced an opponent who has been strong for years. Both today’s match and Saturday’s match are considered very good tests going forward, to see what we need to improve or where we are good defensively and offensively.

Personally, I liked that even though we were behind at the end of the first half, we managed to level the match, we went above and beyond and could have been winners in the end. I keep the cohesion and metal that the team showed”, commented the pivot of the national team, Nikos Liapis.

The two teams will meet again at 18:30 on Saturday at the same stadium.

The five minutes: 0-3, 4-6, 5-8,7-11, 11-13, 12-15 (mch), 14-17, 17-19, 20-21, 23-24, 26-26, 29-29

Greece (Zaravinas): Bukovinas, Papantonopoulos, El. Papazoglou, Papavasilis 1, Kederis 3, Kostakidis, Savvas 3, Boskos 1, Mylonas 3, Mallios, Panagiotou, Toskas 4, Ath. Papadionisiou

North Macedonia (Lazarov): Mitrevski, Tomovski, Teleski 3, F. Kusmanovski 5, Dionov 2, Georgiev, Velkovsky 2, Yagurinovski 3, Sarafinov, Savrevski, Kosteski 2, Ch. Kusmanovski 2, Atanasiewicz 1, Markovski 2, Pesevsky 5, Lazarevsky 2