The German handball record champion THW Kiel achieved a prestigious victory in its last Champions League game of the year and consolidated its lead in Group A.
Filip Jicha’s team won 26:25 (15:12) against the Norwegian million-dollar project Kolstad Handball, where former THW top star Sander Sagosen is one of the big names, and has now been unbeaten in six competitive games.
Sagosen scored five goals in his old place of work, but the backcourt star also saw a red card in the 55th minute. Kiel’s most successful thrower was the Swedish right winger Niclas Ekberg with eight hits. Seconds before the final siren, Rune Dahmke scored the winning goal with his only goal of the game.
In the first leg, Kiel had to admit defeat to the Norwegian star ensemble of Sagosen, Magnus Röd, Magnus Gullerud, Göran Sjögard and Torbjörn Bergerud 30:34. Even in the revenge, Kiel was 1:4 behind early on, but recovered and went into the locker room with a three-goal lead. The second half was highly dramatic with the better end for Kiel.
Only the two best teams in the group advance directly to the quarter-finals, the teams in third to sixth place determine the other participants in the round of the best eight in knockout duels with four teams from Group B with defending champion SC Magdeburg.