It happened as expected: MT Melsungen lost their home game against Füchse Berlin and can be happy about that. The North Hessians qualified for the Champions League – thanks to the bizarre rules.
Rarely has a defeat hurt as little as it did this time. Or to put it another way: The Bundesliga handball players from MT Melsungen were probably even happy about it. With the 28:39 (16:18) on Thursday evening in their own hall against Füchse Berlin, both teams made the Champions League clear.
The bizarre set of rules is responsible for this. The Bundesliga has three places available for the premier class. Two of them go to the first two places the tableto champions Magdeburg and the Berliners, who have been essentially runners-up since the victory in Melsungen. The Füchse are two points ahead of Flensburg before the last matchday and also have a significantly better goal difference.
As a newly crowned winner in the European League The Melsungers are therefore awarded third place in Europe’s best competition. If Berlin had slipped out of the top two – and had won the Champions League at the same time, they would have had the right to the premier class as third place. And not Melsungen. It sounds complicated, and it is.
Everything as expected
Ergo, anything other than an MT bankruptcy would have been a huge sensation. And that’s how the game went. The Melsungers didn’t necessarily give anything away, but the team from the capital, which was already a world-class team, was significantly better. Especially since the hosts also had a day-long party marathon hanging in their bones.
Even before the game, the home team, which was missing pillars like captain Timo Kastening and goalkeeper Nebojsa Simic, was greeted with great cheers by their fans. After the break at the latest, a one-sided game finally developed in favor of the Foxes. In short: MT will soon be playing in the Champions League.
MT Melsungen – Füchse Berlin 28:39 (16:18)
Goals for Melsungen: Marchán (5), Mensing (5), Stefansson (3), Kristopans (3), Schefvert (3), Darmoul (2), Ignatow (2), Drosten (2), Eickhoff (1), Soler (1), Arnarsson (1)
Goals for Berlin: Gidsel (9), Gröndahl (6/4 seven meters), Andersson (5), Arino (4), Langhoff (4), Lichtlein (3), av Teigum (3), Pichiri (2), Marsenic (1), Ludwig (1), Freihöfer (1/1) for Berlin
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