THW Kiel confidently made it into the quarter-finals of the Handball Champions League. After the 41:28 in the first leg at Dinamo Bucharest, the Schleswig-Holsteiners were able to afford a narrow 31:32 (16:17) defeat in the second leg at home.
As in the past two years, Kiel will meet Paris St. Germain in the quarter-finals. Once they got ahead, once they failed. Paris had recently qualified for the quarter-finals in the group phase, while Kiel had to go into the play-offs against the Romanian series champion. In the quarter-finals in May, the “Zebras” initially have a home game. The final four of the premier class will take place in Cologne on June 17th and 18th.
“We were very focused – and we played to win,” said Kiel’s Niclas Ekberg, who was the top scorer with nine goals in his 555th game in a THW jersey, and also explained how the decisive goal came about. The 32:31 for Bucharest came in the last second, the ball hit the empty goal. With the overall result of 53:41, the goal didn’t matter much. And Ekberg also emphasized: “We still have a few games to play.” Of course, the club wants to reach the semi-finals in the Champions League, but THW is right in the middle of the championship race again in the Bundesliga.
Bucharest wants to make amends in Kiel
After the clear win in the first leg, the Kiel team quickly found their way back into the game. In the fifth minute, Ekberg made it 4-1 in front of 5,621 spectators at home. However, it quickly became clear that the guests still had a lot planned: Gurbindo Martinez made it 6:6 in the eleventh minute and six minutes later Mohamed Mamdouh Ashem Shebib gave the Romanian champions a 9:7 lead.
Shorthand: THW Kiel – Dinamo Bucharest 31:32 (16:17)
Goals for Kiel: Ekberg (9/6 penalties), Johansson (4), Wiencek (4), Landin Jacobsen (3), Sagosen (3), Pekeler (2), Reinkind (2), Zarabec (2), Bilyk (1), Fraatz (1)
Goals for Bucharest: Kuduz (5), Kasparek (4), Kukic (4), Pascual Garcia (4/1), Akimenko (3), Gurbindo Martinez (3), Mamdouh Ashem Shebib (3), Humet Gaminde (2), Zeinelabedin Ali ( 2), Ghionea (1), Racotea (1)
Viewers: 5,621
However, the people of Kiel were able to remain calm and simply played their boots down. Eric Johansson equalized a little later to 12:12 (24th). The Bucharests presented themselves significantly improved, but Kiel did not do much more than necessary – and made a shell of technical errors. Especially since the half-time lead of the Romanians (17:16) would have been clearer if Landin representative Tomas Mrkva hadn’t shown a good performance and some strong saves (twelve in total) in the THW goal.
The game was entertaining though – both teams felt like playing handball. Sander Sagosen played a fabulous pass behind the back while falling. Dinamo’s Mamdouh Ashem Shebib boxed a pass into the net past the puzzled Mrkva to make it 16:14 (29 th ).
THW picks up the pace – and gambles away the chance of victory
Bucharest was beaten below value a week ago. The fact that the Kielers were still better than their opponents even with the handbrake on was shown after the break when they seemingly effortlessly picked up the pace. Sagosen scored to 18:18 (36th), a little later Magnus Landin made it 21:19 (40th).
But the will of the Dinamos to say goodbye to the premier class with their heads held high should not be underestimated: Bucharest turned the game around again – the highlight was the Kempa trick, which led to Alex Pascual Garcia’s goal to 28:26 for the guests (51st). Nevertheless, it looked as if it would not be enough for the Romanians to win again. At 31:31 the THW supposedly had the last attack. But the hosts managed to lose the ball and conceded the 32nd goal with a throw by Andrej Akimenko with the final siren. It was the first home defeat for THW in this European Cup season.
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NDR 2 Sports | 03/29/2023 | 11:03 p.m
