analysis
After 21 years, the SC Magdeburg handball team is celebrating the title in the Champions League again for the first time. The drama of the finale is hard to beat. Also because of the surprising comeback of the injured Gisli Kristjansson.
Gisli Kristjansson stood in front of the SC Magdeburg fan block after the final whistle, tears ran down his face, “Gisli” fan chants echoed through the Kölnarena. “I’ve never experienced such emotions. Just a great moment. One of the best in my whole life”he said.
The 23-year-old has just won the Handball Champions League with SC Magdeburg in a final that can hardly be surpassed in terms of drama against KS Kielce from Poland and contributed six goals himself. It was still not clear in the morning whether he would be able to play at all.
Serious injury in the semifinals
In the semi-final thriller against FC Barelona just a day earlier, the playmaker was injured on the ground after a collision three minutes before the end of regular time – the shoulder of the throwing arm dislocated. Not the first time.
Gisli Kristjansson’s injury history is long. It is already the sixth serious shoulder injury of the only 23-year-old handball player within five years. Only four weeks before the Final Four weekend in Cologne, he broke his ankle, threatened to miss the Final Four and just got fit again in time.
He watched the extra time and the seven-meter throw in the semifinals from the spectator seats behind the goal, his shoulder protected by a strap. “The team put in such an incredible performance. We showed such an incredible mentality and strength. We never give and neither do I.”said Kristjansson after the final.
Most dangerous team in the world
Even before the final, Andreas Wolff, the German national goalkeeper in the service of opponents Kielce, had warned against this mental strength: “For me, SC Magdeburg is the most dangerous team in the world. They have an incredible team spirit. Even if they have a lot of injuries, someone always jumps into the breach and picks up exactly where the other world-class player left off.”
Use the momentum, the great strength of SC Magdeburg – also in the final. It was 26:26 after regulation time, at the end of the subsequent extra time there was a 30:29 win. “Everything went according to plan”said coach Bennet Wiegert after one of the most exciting Champion League finals in recent years, in which his team had been a long time behind. “We’ve filmed so many games this season. We knew that when they get the pressure and feel our breathing, they start swimming and we took advantage of that.”
“The risk was worth it”
The decision that Kristjansson would be part of that plan for the final came just hours before kick-off on Sunday morning after a stress test. “We found a hall somewhere where I could test a bit. We took the risk, but it was worth it.”, says the Icelander, who stood on the plate for a good 40 to 50 minutes in the final. Far more than planned.
Because coach Bennet Wiegert actually didn’t want Kristjansson – who had now even been awarded as the most valuable player in the final four – to play at all. “I wasn’t actually in favor of doing it, but when a player comes up to me and says, ‘This might be the greatest game of my career’, I can’t refuse him that.”explains Wiegert.
With the title win, the Magdeburg coach is now one of the few handball players who have won the Champions League both as a player and as a coach. Only four others had done it before him: Talant Dujshebaev, Carlos Ortega, Roberto Garcia Parrondo and Flip Jicha. “What stories the sport writes”Wiegert said.
One-armed title celebration
Gisli Kristjansson’s one-armed title celebration is one of them. At the award ceremony, he lifted the heavy trophy in the air, visibly inhibited. “It hurts more and more now, but it’s all worth it. I just wanted to help the team somehow.”said the Icelander. “I took the trophy with both hands, but not all the way up.” The tears of joy had long since turned into a big grin.