With defending champions SG Flensburg-Handewitt, record champions THW Kiel and MT Melsungen, a German handball trio has reached the final four in the European League.
Flensburg clearly prevailed in the quarter-final second leg against Bundesliga rivals TSV Hannover-Burgdorf with 43:35 (22:20) and, after the 39:39 in the first leg, confidently secured their ticket to the final weekend on May 30th and 31st in Hamburg. The draw for the semi-finals will take place on Friday in Vienna.
The northern rivals from Kiel had much more trouble, only coming out on top in the seven-meter throw 4-2 against RK Nexe from Croatia. After 60 minutes, THW equalized the three-goal defeat from the first leg (30:33) with a score of 30:27 (17:15).
Eric Johansson and Lukas Zerbe played the biggest role in this with ten goals each. In the nerve-wracking thriller, Kiel goalkeepers Andreas Wolff and Gonzalo Perez de Vargas became the match winners with one seven-meter save each.
Melsungen with difficulty
And Melsungen also had to tremble: The Hessians lost to FC Porto 19:23 (9:12), but narrowly managed to reach the finish line after 28:23 in the first duel. For MT it is only the second international semi-final in the club’s history. Last year Melsungen failed against eventual title holders Flensburg. The Final Four is completed by Montpellier HB from France.
The Bundesliga runner-up from Flensburg lived up to their role as favorites in Hanover thanks to a significant improvement after the break. The best thrower for the SG was Lasse Möller with ten goals. Leif Tissier also scored ten times for the home team.
