After an evening to forget, the Füchse Berlin have to worry about entering the Final Four in the European League. The Berliners were defeated by outsiders Schaffhausen.
The Füchse Berlin have to worry about entering the Final Four in the European League. The Bundesliga handball team lost the first leg of the quarter-finals at the Swiss champions Kadetten Schaffhausen on Tuesday evening with 33:37 (18:19). The handball players in the capital could not get a grip on Schaffhausen’s Icelander Odinn Thor Rikhardsson, who scored 15 goals for the home side. Berlin’s best thrower was Lasse Andersson with just seven goals.
Video: rbb24 | 06.04.2023 | Dennis Wiese
Too imprecise to start with
The foxes didn’t have the pace: Mathias Gidsel had to take a break after he lost in the narrow league success at Hannover-Burgdorf suffered a minor foot injury. The Berliners got into the game slowly without the Danish world champion. Lasse Andersson hit twice powerfully from the backcourt, but otherwise the second in the Bundesliga played far too imprecisely in attack. The result: simple counter-attacks that led to a two-goal lead for the hosts after seven minutes (4:2).
Schaffhausen played passionately in front of a home crowd of 3,500 spectators, which was unusual for the Swiss champions. Above all, Thorben Matzken brought a high level of intensity to the game. The 23-year-old, who had been trained with the foxes and finally landed on the Swiss High Rhine via TuS Ferndorf, acted on the edge of the pain threshold. After a quarter of an hour he already received two two-minute penalties.
Foxes settle, but not sustainably
At this point, the guests from the German capital had pulled away slightly for the first time. Right winger Robert Weber with one and his left counterpart Milos Vujovic with two goals turned a 7:7 lead into a 10:7 lead within a good minute (15th). But that didn’t bring the hoped-for flow – on the contrary. Schaffhausen couldn’t be shaken off, also because the foxes kept conceding goals that were too easy.
After 23 minutes, the home side equalized to 14:14 and coach Jaron Siewert on the bench of the Berliners was seething. The eruption followed during the time-out. Especially in focus: the weak defensive performance. However, it didn’t get any better at first. The foxes had conceded 19 goals at the end of the first half. Too many for the demands of the Berliners and also too many to go into the break with a good result. Schaffhausen now led 19:18.
Change in goal initially without effect
Siewert reacted during the break and made a goal change. The mostly hapless Dejan Milosavljev had to give way to Viktor Kireev. That didn’t have an effect either. Schaffhausen had gained a lot of self-confidence from the first half. And so the Swiss champion scored to 20:18 – and how: with a perfect Kempa trick Michael Kusio made a statement (31st).
The foxes had little to oppose the euphoric home side in this phase. Odinn Thor Rikhardsson scored his tenth goal in the 36th minute and Schaffhausen led 25:22. The Berliners could not reduce the three-goal deficit in the coming minutes. Also because they now also lost the throwing luck on the offensive. Three balls hit the inside post within a very short time. Meanwhile, the cadets continued to score with high frequency (28:25/43.).
Cadet keeper with strong saves
The surprise was palpable, but then the mistakes began to pile up at Schaffhausen as well. The offensive flow broke off briefly, the hosts missed opportunities. The foxes equalized to 28:28 – and they could even have taken the lead in this phase of the game if it hadn’t been for Kristian Pilipovic. Berliners failed several times in a counter-attack in a 1-1 duel with the Austrian. So while they couldn’t crown their comeback, the home side soon got over their weakness.
The underdog really went there for the top Bundesliga team. At the front, the foxes despaired of Pilipovic and themselves, at the back they couldn’t get the Swiss under control at all. When Odinn scored Thor Rikhardsson’s penalty in the 58th minute, the hosts were five goals ahead. The final four dreams of the Berliners were finally in danger. And the attempt to decisively improve the starting position for the second leg in the Max-Schmeling-Halle (April 18, 6:45 p.m.) failed. With 33:37 the Foxes lost to the Kadetten Schaffhausen and need a clear improvement
