Victory after a seven-meter throw: THW Kiel books a ticket for Hamburg

AUDIO: European League: THW Kiel gets the ticket for Hamburg (1 min)

by Christian Görtzen

At 10:28 p.m. the enthusiasm in the Kiel Arena knew no bounds. After the two THW goalkeepers Andreas Wolff and Gonzalo Perez de Vargas each fended off a seven-meter shot from the Croatians in the absolute showdown, the man of the evening, Eric Johansson, kept his nerve. The Swede converted his seven-meter penalty and sent the whole team to the Final Four in Hamburg.

Possible opponents for THW coach Filip Jicha on May 30th and 31st in the Hanseatic city: rival and defending champion SG Flensburg-Handewitt, who won confidently against TSV Hannover-Burgdorf in the second leg, as well as MT Melsungen and Montpellier HB. The draw for the semi-finals will take place on Friday in Vienna.

As winner of the European League, THW could take part in the Champions League next season. However, this would not happen if the Füchse Berlin won the premier class and remained third in the league at the same time, in which case a title win in the European League would not be enough for Kiel to qualify for the Champions League.

Botched start, but Johansson and Zerbe spot on

The THW players and fans had imagined the start of the game against Nasice in front of only 6,005 spectators to be completely different. After five minutes it was 3:5 – so there were already five goals that Kiel had to catch up with. But the “Zebras” quickly stabilized in defense, goalkeeper Wolff now stopped the guests’ throws and they moved forward with speed and conviction. The Swedish backcourt shooter Johansson, who was able to play again after his knee injury, gave the team a 6-5 lead (10th).

After another eight minutes, Schleswig-Holstein had made up for the deficit from the first leg for the first time that evening: pivot Veron Nacinovic scored to make it 10:7. Shortly afterwards it was a four-goal lead – Lukas Zerbe, for example, scored his sixth goal (13:9, 23rd) and thus maintained his 100% shooting percentage.

But Nexe refused to be shaken off. The Croatian international Tin Lucin brought Nasice up to 11:14 after a quick wobble with a nice throw into the top right corner of the goal (26th). At the break, Kiel led 17:15. Johansson contributed eight goals and Zerbe six.

Kiel leads by six goals

Five minutes after the restart, Johansson was on the floor. Aleksandar Stamenkovic stopped him with a blow to the neck. He only received a time penalty for this – red would have very well been possible. Shortly afterwards, THW playmaker Domagoj Duvnjak made it 22:17 (36th). When there was a difference of six goals, Nexe coach Kreso Ivankovic took a timeout (43′).

Things were looking very good for Kiel in the 52nd minute: Johansson made it 29:23 with his ninth goal, but after that the hosts couldn’t do anything offensively. Nexe got three goals in a row to make it 26:29 – the gap for a seven-meter throw was reached again. A good two minutes before the end, Nacinovic put Dusel back to a four-goal lead – and Nasice failed in the following attack.

Reinkind forgives – but the THW still cheers

Kiel had everything in their own hands and played Harald Reinkind wonderfully. The Norwegian climbed up the circle but failed. And things got even more bitter. Lucin cut it to 27:30 with seven seconds left. Time out THW! But the Kiel team missed their last chance. What followed was the big showdown at the seven-meter throw – and the happy ending for the “Zebras”. The decisive action was reserved for Johansson, who was also the most successful THW player with ten goals.

Northern duel in the European Cup

Thanks to an improvement in defense, the SG celebrated a confident victory against northern rivals Hannover-Burgdorf – and thus booked another ticket for Hamburg.