Handball Bundesliga team TSV Hannover-Burgdorf achieved something on Sunday that many other clubs had previously failed to do – defeat SC Magdeburg. It was a magical late afternoon in the TSV Arena, with a lot of drama and emotions. The situation seemed hopeless.
When the first comeback failed six minutes after the restart and the four-goal deficit became one with six goals at the break, almost everyone among the 9,900 spectators in the TSV Arena must have had the following thoughts: “Hannover-Burgdorf won’t be give up, but in the end it simply won’t be enough against the SCM. Magdeburg is simply too good. It’s not for nothing that they have previously gone 30 games without defeat across all competitions.”
You would be sorely mistaken. Immediately after the 16:22, TSV coach Christian Prokop ordered the Dane Simon Gade into the goal for Dario Quenstedt, and the 27-year-old immediately gave off a feeling of optimism with two strong saves on his debut. Gade maintained this level – he only let five balls pass into the net in the remaining 24 minutes.
Hannover-Burgdorf wins with a Kempa trick
There were a total of three players who stood out a little from a fantastic TSV team. In addition to Gade, these were TSV captain Marius Steinhauser, who was the top scorer in the entire game with ten goals, and backcourt player Uladzislau Kulesh. The Belarusian 2.06 meter giant ultimately decided the game in favor of Lower Saxony.
He scored in the final minute to make it 27:26 and, after Mageburg’s Felix Claar equalized five seconds before the final siren, he also scored the frenetically celebrated 28:27 winning goal – using a Kempa trick on a pass from Branko Vujovic.
“We have such a good team.”
— TSV captain Marius Steinhauser
“The faith was just enormous,” Steinhauser told NDR. And this even after opportunities had been missed. “That’s the most important thing for a team, that you keep the faith, keep creating chances – and then that’s also an emotional thing.”
How true! The spectators witnessed an incredible fight by the Prokop team. People often like to talk about magical evenings; on Sunday it was a magical late afternoon. “We have such a good team,” enthused Steinhauser. “We had a great day and, above all, the will to throw everything into the balance. Everyone was tearing themselves apart for each other. Then of course you need a bit of luck, a great goalkeeper at the back and a good defense.” And of course, Steinhauser admitted, Magdeburg’s series of successes was impressive. “But a series like this is bound to be broken at some point.”
Bonus points in the fight for European Cup position
The victory of the “warriors” has a variety of effects. He gave TSV two bonus points in the fight for qualification for the European Cup, he also helped third-placed SG Flensburg-Handewitt Nord in the fight for Champions League qualification, as the gap to the SCM is now “only” four points amounts. And he will also change the look of Magdeburg coach Bennet Wiegert.
“Strongers” shave SCM trainer Wiegert
He hadn’t shaved since September of last year, since the start of the successful series – with the result that in the past few weeks he had shown certain similarities to the robber Hotzenplotz. The SCM coach had already said before the game in Hanover that the hype about it had become too big for him. “I would actually have taken it off sooner if my damn superstition didn’t get the better of me sometimes,” said Wiegert at DYN.
“It feels very, very terrible.”
— SCM trainer Bennet Wiegert
After the game he gave the impression that he would have loved to let his beard grow out. “The defeat obviously feels really, really terrible because we just weren’t used to it. We were of course aware that this moment would come,” he said, referring to his team’s six-goal lead at the time: ” That shouldn’t sound disrespectful to TSV Hannover-Burgdorf, because they fought fantastically and self-sacrificingly, but that didn’t have to be the case today.”
TSV was already challenged in the European League on Tuesday
There isn’t much time left for the “warriors” to fully enjoy their triumph. The European League takes place on Tuesday. The game against the Rhein-Neckar Löwen is on the program at 8:45 p.m. Hannover-Burgdorf lost its top position in Group I with a 32:38 defeat against HBC Nantes. Only the winner qualifies directly for the quarter-finals, the second and third placed teams go into a play-off round around Easter.
Steinhauser draws a lot of motivation for the duel with his Bundesliga rivals from both the defeat against Nantes and the win against Magdeburg. “We also have a good starting position in the European League, even if we were a bit weak against Nantes recently,” said the right winger and added with a smile: “We have to make up for it a little bit now.”
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NDR 2 Sport | 02/18/2024 | 11:03 p.m
