Zagreb has finished the European season. After five years, he welcomed the calendar European spring in perhaps the most challenging circumstances so far. Although he destroyed PSG this season, Pick Szeged took points from Kielce and Aalborg, Montpellier also confirmed on the field a greater choice, budget and quality, which was usually shown in the two matches.
After seasons without points and without an audience, Zagreb returned to what it represented for years in European handball in a group that has never been stronger in history. No one saw that he would fight in that group, and in the last round of the group he was in the running for third place. It’s called work. It is huge for the start and passage of the group for the first time since 2019, as much as Montpellier has done, and as an opportunity to try and do something more, that is, the quarter-final that was last played in the Arena eight years ago.
Zagreb will try something more in the new season. To begin with, he has to win the title of Croatian champion, like every time before, and then hope that the EHF will give him an invitation again, because Croatia does not have the coefficient for a direct place in the Champions League. In that ranking, Croatia is only in 14th place, and the first nine have sure representatives in the elite.
The biggest stress about it is Zagreb. experienced last year. The EHF awarded him even when he had neither results nor fans, the two most important references, so after this season there should be no doubt that the invitation will come to Trešnjevka again. North Macedonia and Slovenia lost their safe place in the elite, and the fact that Pelister and Celje ended this season without a point is a big burden for them, so we could see some new names in the new season. For example, surely Bucharest’s Dinamo, which received Zagreb’s invitation this season the hardest.
Zagreb will be even stronger in the future. The most important news is that all key players remain, Mandić and Klarica extended their contracts until 2026, Kos has two more, Srna a year and a half, Dibirov recently renewed for another one, Faljić sođer. Čupić He will think about continuing because he has the option of being an assistant coach.
So far, the midfielders from the broader list of the Croatian national team are coming Ivano Pavlović from Izviđač, left-handed Serbian Mihajlo Radojković from Beşiktaş, who will replace the Cuban Morales who is on his way to Tatabanya, and the young Belarusian guard. Two Slovenians are also leaving, goalkeeper Panjtar and pivot Suholežnik, who will need to be replaced by Falji and Walczak.