2018–19 SEHA League

The 2018–19 SEHA League season was the eighth season of the SEHA (South East Handball Association) League and fifth under the sponsorship of the Russian oil and gas company Gazprom. Ten teams from seven countries (Belarus, Croatia, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Romania) were participating in this year's competition.^[4][5][6]

2018-19 SEHA League season
League	SEHA League
Sport	Handball
Number of games	90 (regular season) 94 (including F4 tournament)
Number of teams	10  Belarus (1 team)  Croatia (2 teams)  North Macedonia (2 teams)  Serbia (2 teams)  Slovakia (1 team)  Romania (1 team)  Bosnia and Herzegovina (1 team)
Regular season
Season champions	Vardar
Season MVP	Zlatko Horvat[1]
Top scorer	Miloš Grozdanić (102 goals)[2]
Final Four
Finals champions	Vardar[3]
Runners-up	PPD Zagreb
Finals MVP	Dainis Krištopāns

Vardar were the defending champions. The SEHA League consists of two phases – the first one has 18 rounds in which all teams played one home and one away games against each other. Afterwards, the four best ranked clubs played on the Final Four tournament.

Final four tournament was held in Brest, Republic of Belarus, on 2nd and 3 April. RK Vardar defeated PPD Zagreb 26–23 in the final to win their fifth title.

Team information

Venues and locations

Country	Team	City	Venue (Capacity)
Belarus	Meshkov Brest	Brest	Universal Sports Complex Victoria (3,740)
Croatia	PPD Zagreb	Zagreb	Sutinska Vrela Hall (2,000)
	Nexe	Našice	Sportska dvorana kralja Tomislava (2,500)
North Macedonia	Vardar	Skopje	Jane Sandanski Arena (7,500)
	Metalurg	Skopje	Boris Trajkovski Sports Center (8,000), Avtokomanda (2,000)
Serbia	Železničar	Niš	Čair Sports Center (4,800)
	Vojvodina	Novi Sad	SPENS (11,000), SC Slana Bara (2,000)
Slovakia	Tatran Prešov	Prešov	City Hall Prešov (4,870)
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Izviđač	Ljubuški	Ljubuški Sports Hall (4,000)
Romania	Steaua București	Bucharest	Sala Polivalentă (5,300), Sala Sporturilor Concordia (1,465)

PPD Zagreb Nexe Vardar Metalurg Železničar Vojvodina Izviđač CO Location of teams in 2018-19 SEHA League (Croatia, North Macedonia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Meshkov Brest Location of teams in 2018-19 SEHA League (Belarus) Tatran Prešov Location of teams in 2018-19 SEHA League (Slovakia) Steaua București Location of teams in 2018-19 SEHA League (Romania)

Personnel and kits

Following is the list of clubs competing in 2018–19 SEHA League, with their manager, team captain, kit manufacturer and shirt sponsor.

Team	Head coach	Team captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor (main)
Meshkov Brest	Manolo Cadenas	Siarhei Shylovich	Joma	BelGazpromBank
PPD Zagreb	Branko Tamše	Zlatko Horvat	Hummel	Prvo Plinarsko Društvo
Nexe	Hrvoje Horvat	Vedran Zrnić	Jako	Nexe
Vardar	Roberto García Parrondo	Stojanče Stoilov	Hummel	Bet City
Metalurg	Danilo Brestovac	Mario Tankoski	Kempa	ReMedika
Železničar	Veselin Vujović	Milan Vučković	ASICS	Macron
Vojvodina	Boris Rojević	Vukašin Stojanović	NAAI	Grad Novi Sad
Tatran Prešov	Slavko Goluža	Radovan Pekár	ATAK Sportswear	Phoenix
Izviđač	Silvio Ivandija	Vedran Delić	Hummel	Central Osiguranje
Steaua București	Ovidiu Mihăilă	Marius Stavrositu	Luanvi	Fundația Alexandrion

Coaching changes

Round	Club	Outgoing coach	Date of change	Incoming coach
11th	PPD Zagreb	Lino Červar[7]	11 December 2018	Tonči Valčić
11th	PPD Zagreb	Tonči Valčić[8]	4 January 2019	Branko Tamše

Regular season

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Vardar	18	14	0	4	512	467	+45	42	Final four
2	PPD Zagreb	18	13	0	5	484	442	+42	39[a]
3	Nexe	18	13	0	5	469	420	+49	39[a]
4	Meshkov Brest	18	13	0	5	573	483	+90	39[a]
5	Tatran Prešov	18	12	0	6	493	444	+49	36
6	Vojvodina	18	7	1	10	441	483	−42	22
7	Steaua București	18	6	0	12	460	524	−64	18
8	Železničar	18	5	1	12	463	507	−44	16
9	Metalurg	18	4	1	13	494	534	−40	13
10	Izviđač	18	1	1	16	444	529	−85	4

Source: SEHA Standings
Notes:

1. PPD Zagreb 6 Pts, +2 GD; Nexe 6 Pts, 0 GD; Meshkov Brest 6 Pts, −2 GD

Results

Home \ Away	MES	ZAG	NEX	VAR	MET	IZV	VOJ	TAT	ZEL	STE
Meshkov Brest		31–26	25–30	35–20	41–29	40–22	35–19	28–32	28–20	35–21
PPD Zagreb	29–24		20–17	26–23	26–22	36–25	25–23	28–29	30–28	24–17
Nexe	26–29	23–22		24–21	26–23	22–17	29–23	27–22	34–25	28–23
Vardar	30–32	28–26	31–26		34–28	38–27	33–26	23–21	35–20	27–21
Metalurg	28–34	24–36	27–32	26–27		27–27	39–20	30–28	29–30	28–29
Izviđač	29–33	21–22	23–24	28–31	30–31		23–25	22–26	29–24	28–29
Vojvodina	29–23	20–23	26–21	23–26	31–30	26–18		17–27	27–27	28–25
Tatran Prešov	21–35	31–21	26–24	26–27	30–20	29–22	31–24		27–26	26–19
Železničar	30–32	32–33	18–25	22–24	27–25	30–21	20–27	25–36		28–21
Steaua București	42–33	24–31	19–31	30–34	26–28	36–32	28–27	26–25	24–31

Source: SEHA Fixtures and Results
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Final Four

The SEHA - Gazprom League Executive Committee had made the decision for the final four tournament to be held at the Universal Sports Complex Victoria in Brest, Republic of Belarus, on 2nd and 3 April.^[9] The first-placed team of the standings faced the fourth-placed team, and the second-placed team played against the third-placed team from the standings in the Final Four.

Bracket

	Semifinals				Final
	2 April
	PPD Zagreb	28
					3 April
	Nexe	23
					PPD Zagreb	23
	2 April
					Vardar	26
	Vardar	25
	Meshkov Brest	23
					Third place
					3 April
					Nexe	19
					Meshkov Brest	24

Semifinals

2 April 2019 16:30 CEST (UTC+02:00)	PPD Zagreb	28–23	Nexe	Universal Sports Complex Victoria, Brest Attendance: 1,235 Referees: Nikolić, Stojković (SRB)
	Bičanić 7	(18–15)	Buvinić 7
	2× 2×	Report	2× 3×

---

2 April 2019 19:00 CEST (UTC+02:00)	Vardar	25–23	Meshkov Brest	Universal Sports Complex Victoria, Brest Attendance: 3,420 Referees: Mandak, Rudinsky (SVK)
	Stoilov 7	(14–10)	three players 3
	2× 2×	Report	3× 4×

Match for third place

3 April 2019 16:30 CEST (UTC+02:00)	Nexe	19–24	Meshkov Brest	Universal Sports Complex Victoria, Brest Attendance: 3,270 Referees: Stark, Ştefan (ROU)
	Jaganjac, Šipić 5	(8–12)	Baranau 5
	3× 1×	Report	3× 3×

Final

3 April 2019 19:00 CEST (UTC+02:00)	PPD Zagreb	23–26	Vardar	Universal Sports Complex Victoria, Brest Attendance: 3,210 Referees: Pavićević, Ražnatović (MNE)
	Mrakovčić 4	(12–14)	Krištopāns 7
	2× 5× 2×	Report	1× 1× 1×

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[10]
1	Miloš Grozdanić	Vojvodina	102
2	Bruno Butorac	Tatran Prešov	90
3	Halil Jaganjac	Nexe	85

Awards

The all-star team was announced on 3 April 2019.^[11]

• Goalkeeper:  Dejan Milosavljev (SRB)
• Right wing:  Zlatko Horvat (CRO)
• Right back:  Dainis Krištopāns (LAT)
• Centre back:  Sandro Obranović (CRO)
• Left back:  Damir Bičanić (CRO)
• Left wing:  Timur Dibirov (RUS)
• Pivot:  Stojanče Stoilov (MKD)
• Best Defender:  Pavel Horák (CZE)
• MVP of the Final four:  Dainis Krištopāns (LAT)