Defending champion dethroned: After a real handball thriller, SC Magdeburg was the last team to reach the Final Four in the DHB Cup.
The German champion defeated THW Kiel in the new edition of last year’s final with 35:34 (29:29, 19:14) after extra time and is allowed to play in the final tournament on 15./16. April in Cologne dream of his third cup triumph after 1996 and 2016. (NEWS: Everything you need to know about the DHB Cup)
However, the SCM experienced a bitter setback: Magnus Saugstrup allegedly injured his knee badly in the 66th minute and was only able to watch the rest of the cup thriller as a spectator in tears.
SCM: World Champion Saugstrup seriously injured
For this reason, the joy of coach Bennet Wiegert was limited after the final whistle.
“We paid a damn dear price for getting through. I lack the imagination that Saugi (Magnus Saugstrup, Editor’s Note) in the best case not missed ten to twelve games. It’s hard to take after an overtime that we shouldn’t have gone into,” said the SCM coach Sky.
After the end of the game, not only the Magdeburg players gathered around the injured Saugstrup – the opponents from Kiel also congratulated the Danish world champion on progressing.
The Kielers themselves had to bury their hopes of winning their 13th cup. The Zebras caught up a six-goal deficit in the last eight minutes of regular time, but in the end Magdeburg celebrated in overtime thanks to strong nerves and Saugstrup’s substitute Lukas Meister, who scored the decisive last two goals.
Kiel coach Jicha disappointed about the cup
For the first time since 2018, the final round of the four best teams will take place without THW. “It hurts extremely,” said Kiel’s coach Filip Jicha. “The reasons for this lie in the first half. We lacked quality in defense and attack. That mortgage was too big.”
The top scorer in Magdeburg in front of around 12,000 spectators in Hamburg was Kay Smits with eight goals, while Eric Johannsson scored the most (9 goals) for Kiel.
Already on Saturday, SG Flensburg-Handewitt, Rhein-Neckar Löwen and TBV Lemgo Lippe bought their tickets for the Final Four, which will be held in the cathedral city for the first time after many years in Hamburg. The draw for the two semi-final pairings will take place next Wednesday.
Flensburg beat HSG Wetzlar 29:28 (25:25, 16:13) after extra time. The Löwen, third in the Bundesliga table, won their first competitive game of the year at Hannover-Burgdorf with a much clearer score of 31:25 (14:10). Lemgo, cup winner of 2020, held his own against old champions VfL Gummersbach with 33:30 (18:14) and made it into the final tournament of the best for the third time in a row.
Kiel and Magdeburg deliver handball thrillers
Just seven days after the Handball World Championship, Kiel and Magdeburg played a hotly contested game. While Magdeburg pushed the pace from the start even without their injured top scorer Omar Ingi Magnusson and hardly missed a goal, Kiel seemed unusually sleepy at first.
Up front, top star Sander Sagosen and his team-mates fabricated a few tickets, while at the back, Danish world champion goalkeeper Niklas Landin couldn’t get a ball in the first half.
In the second half, Kiel, which had moved its home game from the Baltic Sea to Hamburg’s Barclays Arena due to a long-term planned motocross event, quickly closed the gap to 19:21 (37th), but Magdeburg initially stayed cool and pulled thanks to good Actions by national player Philipp Weber with three goals in a row again at 24:19.
When Matthias Musche increased the lead to 29:23 for Magdeburg eight minutes before the end, a preliminary decision seemed to have been made. But suddenly the THW-Express started rolling. Magnus Landin equalized with a converted penalty in the final second.
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With Sports Information Service (SID)
