Jacob Holm (Middle) was the best Berlin thrower with six goals Photo: City Press
From BZ/dpa
The Füchse Berlin lost their theoretical chance of second place in the Handball Bundesliga. But third place is safe because Flensburg lost.
On Wednesday evening, on the penultimate matchday, the Berliners did not get past a 23:23 (12:13) after a weak offensive performance at HBW Balingen-Weilstetten, who were threatened with relegation. The best Berlin throwers were Jacob Holm with six and Hans Lindberg with five goals.
The foxes’ ankle injury suffered by Fabian Wiede against Minden on Sunday turned out to be not so serious. The national player was in Balingen in the starting lineup. Although the Berliners tried to set the pace from the start, they also found it very difficult against very committed hosts.
The guests, who have been so offensively strong recently, made too many lack of concentration and too many ball losses, especially in attack. So the Berliners usually ran behind a narrow deficit. After a good 19 minutes, it increased to two goals for the first time (8:10). The foxes were unlucky with four aluminum hits in the first half.
After the change of sides, the Berliners acted better, at least defensively, and shortly after the break they took the lead again after a long time (15:14). After that, however, they failed to open a gap of more than two goals.
So Balingen came back and with two minutes left they were two goals down themselves (21:23). But they fought. 34 seconds before the end, Paul Drux equalized again, and Foxes keeper Dejan Milosavljev parried the last throw.
