The German handball champion THW Kiel kept its clean slate in the Champions League.
Against the Polish top team Industria Kielce, the four-time title winner celebrated their fourth victory with 35:31 (15:16), despite their fluctuations in form at national level in the fourth preliminary round game. Thanks to the success against the premier class finalists of the last two seasons, who competed without the injured national goalkeeper Andreas Wolff, Kiel remains at the top of Group A for at least another week.
The hosts, who returned to success last Sunday in the Bundesliga after three defeats in a row and an early exit in the DHB Cup with a 34:23 win against HSV Hamburg, initially had a difficult time against Kielce. After changing leads in the first half and the narrow deficit at halftime, the THW gained a decisive four-goal lead towards the middle of the second half. Kielce fought against its second defeat in the preliminary round, but in the end THW coach Filip Jicha’s players couldn’t let their important success be taken away from them.
The hosts’ most successful throwers were the Faroese Elias Ellefsen a Skipagotu and the Swede Eric Johansson with seven hits each. In Kielce’s team, Szymon Sicko and Nicolas Tournat also stood out as seven goalscorers.
Kiel, which failed in the quarter-finals last season against Paris, had a contrasting program in its first three group games with victories at RK Zagreb (30:23), against Pick Szeged (35:32) and at EF Pelister (23:20). on his ideas about the crisis in the two German competitions. In the remaining three matches in the first half of the preliminary round, the Zebras still have to play in the premier class in Norway against Kolstad HB (October 19th) and Paris St. Germain (October 26th) and against the Danish top club Aalborg BK (November 16th).