Bundesliga leaders SC Magdeburg will face second-placed Füchse Berlin in the semi-finals of the German Handball Cup. The second semi-final will be contested by third-placed SG Flensburg-Handewitt and fourth-placed league MT Melsungen.
This was the result of the draw on Tuesday (February 6th, 2024) in Cologne. U21 world champion Elias Scholtes drew the pairings. The two semi-finals will take place on April 13, 2023, the final and game for third place on April 14.
Defending champion Rhein-Neckar Löwen was eliminated in the quarter-finals against SC Magdeburg on Sunday. SCM coach Bennet Wiegert’s team is aiming for their third cup victory. The Flensburg team has already won the competition four times, the Berlin team once. The MT Melsungen is still waiting to win its first title.
Seifert on the Final Four: “Super Bowl of handball”
Former DFL boss Christian Seifert loudly advertised the Final Four for the DHB Cup in the run-up to the draw. “We will make it the Super Bowl of handball. That must also be our self-image – in a country with the strongest league, with the strongest players“, said the marketer, who has been broadcasting handball games live with the streaming platform Dyn since the beginning of this season. The cup final is “one of the four most important handball games in the world“In addition to the World Cup and European Championship finals and the Champions League final, it will be broadcast in 60 countries.
League managing director Frank Bohmann recorded a surge in popularity in handball and reported “exploding reach figures” among the young target group after the recent European Championships.
“We achieved almost the same numbers on social media channels and sportschau.de at the European Handball Championships as we achieved at the World Cup in Qatar“, WDR sports director Karl Valks confirmed: “There are people who enjoy this sport.”