Vardar was drawn to square off against APOEL in the Champions League draw that took place on Monday.
Luck was not on Vardar’s side in Monday’s Champions League draw. Earlier in the day, Vardar learned that they would face one of the following five teams: APOEL, Maribor, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Qarabağ or Lech Poznan.
All five of those clubs would be favored against Vardar as the hope of many fans to land an easier opponent went out the window. Instead, APOEL was the team that was drawn to face Vardar.
This matchup will be special for Boban Grncharov, currently a member of Vardar who formerly played for APOEL. He was highly respected there, and actually Boban was hoping to avoid APOEL because that club holds a special place in his heart.
Besides Grncharov, Vlatko Grozdanoski and Nikola Gligorov also have experience playing in the Cypriot league. Grozdanoski played for Omonia, APOEL’s rival, while Gligorov suited up for Alki Larnaca.
As for APOEL, that is the team of Macedonia’s U21 national team striker Valmir Nafiu.
Interestingly, both Vardar and APOEL have been linked with Ivan Trichkovski this summer, so we’ll see if this matchup leads to either side ramping up their interest in Trichkovski. Ivan is currently a free agent.
APOEL has a good track record in Europe, so on paper this looks like a tough draw for Vardar. However, the game is played on the pitch and we’ll see how Vardar responds over the two legs versus APOEL, to be played in mid July.