Hungary had won all five previous meetings with North Macedonia, but now the Balkan side managed to take a point in an extremely hard-fought encounter, boosting their confidence before the next important games. 

GROUP D
Hungary vs North Macedonia 27:27 (14:14)

Seen as the favourites of this all-European duel, Hungary seemed to live up to expectations in the opening minutes, taking an early control of the game. Right back Zoran Ilic scored four goals in six minutes, propelling his team to a 5:2 lead.

However, North Macedonia quickly turned the tide, responding with a 5:0 run. Kiril Lazarov's team played with passion, and their goalkeeper Nikola Mitreski stood like a wall, making one save after another. In contrast, his Hungarian colleague Roland Mikler failed to have an impact, as his team were surprisingly down 6:10 midway through the first half.

But when Mikler was substituted by Kristof Palasics, Hungary's goalkeeping improved, and the team started to catch up. They slashed the gap to 10:11, and although North Macedonia then enjoyed another good spell to extend their lead to 13:11, the Hungarians drew level almost a minute before before the break.

As the Balkan side played seven-on-six in attack, Mate Lekai scored from own half into an empty net, and then Ilic could do the same and give Hungary a half-time advantage, but missed his attempt. A few seconds later, North Macedonia's goal was disallowed, as it was scored just after the half-time buzzer, so the rivals remained level at 14:14.

Soon after the restart, Ilic finally gave Hungary a long-awaited lead, yet North Macedonia continued to fight hard. Hungary's Zoltan Szita conceded a red card for a rough challenge on Filip Kuzmanovski, who actually led his team by example, becoming the top scorer of the encounter with 10 goals.

The pendulum continued to swing, with none of the rivals being able to pull clear by more than one goal in the extremely tense second half, so the outcome was impossible to predict until the very end. For Hungary, Richard Bodo rose to prominence in the last 15 minutes, scoring four of his five goals during that period, but even he was unable to give his team a cutting edge.

In the 59th minute, Kuzmanovski put his team in front for the last time, 27:26, and then Nikola Mitreski made his 11th save of the day, denying Bodo. North Macedonia then had a timeout, but they lost the ball in the next attack, and Patrik Ligetvari scored from a fast break with 13 seconds to go, securing his team one point. 

hummel Player of the Match: Filip Kuzmanovski (North Macedonia)