TBV Lemgo Lippe narrowly defeated SG Flensburg-Handewitt, second in the Handball Bundesliga table, at home. This puts the East Westphalians among the top teams in the league.
The TBV Lemgo Lippe remains the team of the hour in the handball Bundesliga: Coach Florian Kehrmann’s team narrowly but deservedly prevailed against SG Flensburg-Handewitt with 34:33 (18:12). This means that the East Westphalians slipped up to third place in the table and are level on points with the top team from North Germany. Samuel Zehnder was the TBV’s best thrower with nine hits.
After the win against Füchse Berlin four days earlier, the next convincing and surprising performance. Qualifying for the Champions League is not a utopia for the TBV.
For Flensburg-Handewitt, the second defeat of the current season is a bitter setback in the fight for the title. Above all, the faulty first half of coach Ales Pajovic’s team was the cause of the defeat. The best thrower for Flensburg was Simon Pytlick with nine hits.
Goalkeeper Möstl difficult to overcome
It was an even start between both teams, with both goalkeepers showing early on what qualities they have. Both Benjamin Buric from the visitors and home keeper Constantin Möstl each had four saves to their name after the first ten minutes. The score up to this point of 5:5 also reflected the balanced balance of power.
For the first time, after 13 minutes, the Kehrmann team managed to pull away and take the lead 8:5. That left a bit of a mark on the Flensburgers, who suddenly acted more incorrectly and gave the Lemgoers new chances. In addition, goalkeeper Möstl continued to be a very difficult hurdle to overcome.
Zehnder impressed in attack
When Lemgo took its first timeout after 17 minutes, the home team was leading 9:6. After 20 minutes, TBV was ahead 11:6, although Flensburg had not scored a goal for five minutes at this point. The Kehrmann team showed around 4,500 spectators in the Lemgo hall why they were the team of the hour Handball-Bundesliga applies.
At halftime the TBV deservedly led with 18:12, the best thrower for Lemgo until then was Samuel Zehnder with four goals. Simon Pytlick also scored four times for Flensburg.
Six goal gap
Even after the break, the Lemgo team continued where they left off. It quickly became 20:14 and there was still no sign of weakness on the part of the home team. Zehnder remains aggressive and accurate. However, Flensburg managed a little better to create compactness in defense.
But the Pajovic team simply couldn’t manage to get any closer to the hosts with a possible run. On the contrary: TBV managed to maintain the six-goal gap almost throughout. Eleven minutes before the end, Lemgo led 29:23.
Phase of Lemgo uncertainty
But then suddenly and unexpectedly the Lemgoers went into a phase of uncertainty, which Flensburg confidently exploited and reduced the score to 26:29. The Kehrmann team recovered and, with great effort, managed to maintain this three-goal lead for as long as possible. In Flensburg’s last timeout, two and a half minutes before the end, Lemgo was leading 34:31.
In the last few seconds things got very tight for Lemgo. Flensburg turned up the heat and took advantage of every chance to score. Three seconds before the end it was only 34:33 for the TBV. A free throw near the center line after time had expired no longer resulted in a point gain for Flensburg – and ultimately a deserved victory for Lemgo.
