Handball record champions THW Kiel suffered their second defeat in the group phase of the Champions League. The North Germans lost to the Danish runner-up Aalborg HB with 18:27 (6:11).
At the end of the first half of the season, THW remains leader of Group A with 10:4 points. Aalborg came in second, but came within one point with 9:5 points. The best throwers were Niclas Ekberg with seven goals for the hosts and Sebastian Barthold with five goals for the Danes.
Returnee Niklas Landin, who returned to his hometown at the start of the season after eight years in Kiel, was immediately at the center of the action. In the first half alone, the Aalborg keeper parried seven-meter throws from Ekberg, his brother Magnus Landin and Elias Ellefsen á Skipagötu. In the end, Niklas Landin made a strong 19 saves.
Kiel went eleven minutes without scoring their own goal
After its 4:2 lead (10th minute), the THW completely lost the thread. Many technical errors were accompanied by poor throwing decisions. The Danes pulled away to 11:5 (26th). During this phase, the Kiel team remained without a goal of their own for more than eleven minutes.
The North Germans also had a bad start to the second half. In just over a minute, the guests scored three goals and extended their lead to 14:7 (32nd). THW coach Filip Jicha took his last time out in the 45th minute. That didn’t change anything about the first home defeat in the current premier class season.
Meanwhile, SC Magdeburg won thanks to a fighting performance against GOG Handbol 35:27 (16:16) and moved past the Danes to third place in Group B.
After a weak initial phase against the team from Gudme, SC coach Bennet Wiegert’s team recovered and went into the half-time break tied. The SC then turned up the heat, clearly distanced GOG by eight goals and deserved to win.