The designated German handball champion SC Magdeburg missed the successful title defense in the European League.
In a thrilling final in the Altice Arena, coach Bennet Wiegert’s team had to admit defeat to host Benfica Lisbon by 39:40 (32:32, 14:15) after extra time.
If they had triumphed again, SCM would have become the sole record winner in the competition below the Champions League with five triumphs.
“It’s extremely bitter. We thought we’d won after 60 minutes. And then something like that happens,” said goalkeeper Jannick Green. “We had problems in defense and in goalkeeping. Their big pivots gave us challenges.”
In a game that was tight over the entire distance, Omar Ingi Magnusson was the most successful scorer for the Magdeburg team with twelve goals on Sunday, who looked like the winners shortly before the end of regular time. But with the final siren, Alexis Borges Hernandez forced Benfica to extend. And there, too, the 30-year-old put the finishing touches.
The day before, SCM had confidently entered the final of the “small European Cup” with a 34:29 (18:13) against the Croatian representative Nexe Nasice.
Against Benfica, last year’s third in the Portuguese league, the favorites were temporarily up by three goals in the second half, but the Lisbon didn’t give up and were rewarded in the end. Their top scorer was former German international Ole Rahmel with eleven goals.
Consolation prize HBL champion?
On Thursday, the high-flyers from Saxony-Anhalt can console themselves with the premature win of the first German championship since 2001 against HBW Balingen-Weilstetten. This season, the traditional club, which has also won the premier class three times in its club history, also triumphed at the Club World Championship (IHF Super Globe).
Magdeburg had won the cup in the final against Füchse Berlin in Mannheim last year and thus drew level with Frisch Auf Göppingen and THW Kiel (4 each) in terms of titles. The club had won the previous titles in 1999, 2001 and 2007.
The SCM was the only Bundesliga representative at the finals in Lisbon, after three clubs had been in the Final Four in 2021. In the last 18 editions of the competition, the winner was only once not from Germany.