In front of 4,500 fans at the always loud Boris Trajkovski arena, Macedonia's national handball beat Austria as part of the world cup qualifying.

The red and yellow team could only regret not winning the match by more than five goals. Macedonia had the lead 15-7, 22-14, but in the end allowed to Austrians to climb back for a respectable defeat.

As expected, the top scorer for Macedonia was Kire Lazarov with 5 goals, although he did miss two penalties. Rematch is scheduled for Vienna at 8:30pm next Saturday.