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The neighbors are set to meet in Varna today. There are big difference with these teams when it comes to the preparation period. I'll start with the Macedonians who struggled a lot with players and the relations within the Federation. Coach Ristoski invited 21 players to join initially but only 10 of them actually did. The well experimented receivers Milev and Milkov decline the invitations, just like middle blocker Nikolov. Mandzukov is injured while Gjorgjevski and Karanovic retired. The greatest of all shocks was Simovski leaving the team just a few days ago with family problems. The Macedonians had to change their tactics after that. Also, even though Ristoski signed a new deal, there is inside information which says he will leave after European League. The problems don't end there. They couldn't find a sparring partner and haven't played any test games before this. Last year, they lost to Estonia 9-25, 19-25, 18-25 in the same situation. Albania are not Estonia but they're back at this scene after two years. Coach Melka got the team together in early May and a good preparation period. The two matches with Montenegro proved that. The first one was played with top players and they got a set while losing the other three 22-25, 20-25 and 20-25. They lost the other one in straight sets without Xhelati and Husaj. On the one hand, we have a team with no test games and without 6 players and on the other, there is a team which had good preparations and got a set against Montenegro. Macedonia won in straight sets two years ago but they were in top form back then while Albania didn't have Husaj and had serious problems. That game isn't relevant. The value is in all options at Albania. The counter handicap and point over are good bets. I'll go with the set for Albania given everything I talked about before.