TBV Lemgo Lippe qualified for the Final Four in the DHB Cup with a commanding victory in Leipzig.
A good four and a half years after their cup triumph in the 2019/20 season, Lemgo is reaching for the title again. At least the TBV qualified again for the Final Four in the DHB Cup on Wednesday evening – with a 35:27 (14:11) win at SC DHfK Leipzig in the quarter-finals.
After a good start, Lemgoer briefly fell behind
Recently it was not enough for the final tournament twice in a row and in the two seasons after the cup coup against Melsungen it ended in the semi-finals against THW Kiel and SC Magdeburg.
In Leipzig, where the Lemgo team had already won 34:29 in the league on matchday 2, they got off to a better start, but after Leve Carstensen’s goal to make it 5:3 (9th minute), they remained almost four and a half minutes without a goal of their own. Suddenly the TBV was behind 5:7 against the bottom team in the Bundesliga.
TBV keeper Möstl impressed with nine saves in the first half
Not least thanks to goalkeeper Constantin Möstl’s total of nine saves – his rate was a strong 45 percent – in the first half, coach Florian Kehrmann’s team regained their two-goal lead in the 20th minute (10:8) and extended it by another goal before the break.
After the break, the guests stayed on the accelerator and increased their lead to five goals through Bobby Schagen (32nd minute). The Dutchman defended this lead with two more goals in a row. When Niels Gerardus Versteijnen increased the score to 27:21 (50th) and Urh Kastelic, who came on for Möstl, celebrated his first save shortly afterwards, a successful Leipzig comeback became a long way off.
Versteijnen is Lemgo’s best thrower with eight goals
Joël Willecke (51st) and Versteijnen again (52nd) confirmed the seven-goal lead, so that in the remaining eight minutes the TBV was only concerned with consistently playing off its own attacks and not endangering the victory through major mistakes. The third team in the Bundesliga achieved this convincingly with an eight-goal lead. The Lemgoers’ best throwers were Versteijnen (8 hits) and Schagen (6).
Who will move into the Final Four in Cologne (April 18/19, 2026) alongside the Lemgoers will be decided on Thursday. The Bergische HC is also in the race, hosting MT Melsungen in the evening at 7 p.m.
Our sources:
- DHB Cup game between SC DHfK Leipzig and TBV Lemgo Lippe on December 17th, 2025
- Handball Bundesliga (HBL)
Broadcast: WDR.de, “TBV Lemgo is in the Final Four of the Handball Cup”, December 17th, 2025, 8:57 p.m
