Hamburg (dpa) – The players of THW Kiel cheered behind the blue banner, which clearly indicated: The German record champions are in the final tournament of the Handball Champions League on June 18th and 19th in Cologne.
However, it was a tough fight before the “Zebras” had booked their ticket to the final 4 in Cologne for the eighth time late Thursday evening with a 33:32 (17:19) in the second leg of the quarterfinals over Paris Saint-Germain. The northern rival SG Flensburg-Handewitt, on the other hand, missed their second trip to the cathedral city with the 24:27 (10:10) at defending champion FC Barcelona.
THW left-hander Steffen Weinhold, who scored the decisive goal to make it 33:31, was happy about reaching the semifinals: “It was a hair’s breadth until the end,” said the 35-year-old: “In the second half we have more will in the game shown attack.”
106th Schleswig-Holstein Derby on Sunday
“We fought really well, but in the end we didn’t have the energy and strength,” said Flensburg’s goalkeeper Kevin Möller, analyzing the 60 minutes in Barcelona. Ultimately, the SG failed because of the botched opening phase of the first leg, in which the Catalans threw out the decisive advantage. On Sunday (2 p.m. / Sky) the two top class participants from the north will meet in the 106th Schleswig-Holstein Clasico in the Flensburg Arena.
Telekom Veszprem from Hungary and Vive Kielce from Poland had already qualified for the final tournament on Wednesday. Veszprem threw the Danish finalist Aalborg HB out of the race, Kielce prevailed against the second French representative Montpellier HB. The semi-finals will be drawn at the headquarters of the European Handball Federation (EHF) in Vienna on Tuesday.
After beating TuS N-Lübbecke 38:20, the Bundesliga champions from Magdeburg can already secure the title on Sunday. The first requirement is that Kiel don’t win in Flensburg. And then the Sachsen-Anhalters have to win their away game at promoted HSV Hamburg (4:05 p.m. / Sky). “We don’t really care whether we become champions on Sunday or hopefully later,” said SCM captain Christian O’Sullivan on Sky about the chance of winning the championship early.