AUDIO: THW Kiel with a confident away win (1 min)
EHF European League
As of: February 24, 2026 11:25 p.m
THW Kiel has continued its winning streak in the Handball European League. On Tuesday evening they scored 37:32 (18:15) against the traditional Spanish club Bidasoa Irun. It was the eighth win for the German record champions in the eighth game of the competition.
The THW defended first place in the main round group 1 thanks to the success against the Champions League winners in 1995. The “Zebras” are on the way to being the first to qualify directly for the quarter-finals and to save themselves a round of games with 8:0 points. The second and third placed teams in the four groups determine the other participants in the round of the last eight in play-off games.
SG Flensburg-Handewitt, who previously celebrated a home win against Montpellier HB on Tuesday evening, are still in second place in the group. Coach Filip Jicha’s team will face Irun again next week. Next Tuesday (6:45 p.m., in the NDR Livecenter) Bidasoa will be a guest in the Schleswig-Holstein state capital.
Strong Kiel response to a botched start
The start in the Artaleku Arena went quite wrong for the Kiel team. Three minutes had been played and the German record champions were 3-0 behind against the Basques. The reaction to that was really strong: THW responded with its own 5-0 run. Three goals from Bence Imre and one each from Domgoj Duvnjak and Eric Johansson ensured this. The run was also made possible by a now alert, more attacking defense, behind which goalkeeper Gonzalo Perez de Vargas increasingly found his way into the game.
The Spanish national goalkeeper in the Kiel team soon fended off a seven-meter shot from Gorka Nieto Marcos. Overall, the hosts now had a hard time against the North Germans’ 3-2-1 defense. As a result, the THW pulled away from the two-time Spanish champions (1987, 1995) to 13:8 thanks to a counterattack completed by Rune Dahmke (20th).
With his own lead 16:12, Andreas Wolff briefly moved into the THW goal, only to return to the substitutes’ bench a little later in celebration: He had just parried Iñaki Cavero Echepare’s seven-meter penalty. At the break, Kiel was “only” leading by three goals against the top Basque club, for whom German national coach Alfred Gislason once played (1989-1991).
“Zebras” pull away with a 4-0 run
Three minutes after the restart, Wolff also delivered flawless work in his second short appearance. Cavero Echepare was so impressed by the keeper’s movements that he threw the ball at the outside post. This time the German stayed in goal. And his parades contributed greatly to the North Germans clearly gaining ground. A 4-0 run led to a 30:24 lead (47th).
After that, Kiel couldn’t miss winning the two points. The most successful THW professional was Imre with seven hits.
