Tight handball race
Foxes are “extremely proud”, SCM finds “fly in the ointment”
December 23, 2023, 8:58 a.m
The Füchse Berlin and SC Magdeburg are giving the Handball Bundesliga an exciting title race: Even at the end of the year, the two top teams left nothing behind and remained tied at the top of the table.
The handball players from SC Magdeburg are going into the long European Championship break as Bundesliga leaders. Coach Bennet Wiegert’s team defended its razor-thin lead in the table ahead of Füchse Berlin with a 31:27 (17:10) win on Friday against Frisch Auf Göppingen. The best Magdeburg thrower was once again Omar Ingi Magnusson with twelve goals.
“With the ten-goal lead, we actually had every opportunity to win even higher. But that’s the fly in the ointment,” said Wiegert on the streaming service Dyn and, with a view to the scheduling stress of the past few weeks, added: “The boys are doing it A fantastic job for months. I can only take my hats off to them.”
The first pursuers remain the Berliners, who are only behind Magdeburg due to the worse goal difference. After a perfect first half, the capital team easily prevailed against SC DHfK Leipzig 37:28 (18:9). Lasse Andersson scored his 500th goal in the Bundesliga.
“I’m of course very happy about the home win and the way the game went. We had a lot planned for today and it certainly wasn’t a disadvantage for us that Franz Semper wasn’t there for Leipzig,” said a happy coach Jaron Siewert, who was in the first half Only saw four goals conceded in 20 minutes. “The defense was great in the first half and we played a good tempo game. I’m extremely happy with the entire first half of the season and I’m super proud of our team.”
Further in the top trio are the handball players from SG Flensburg-Handewitt, who were just able to avoid an embarrassment at the bottom of the table, HBW Balingen-Weilstetten. After 60 minutes of fighting, the North Germans shook their way to a 34:32 (18:16) and with 28 points they are still four points behind the top duo. In the 34:40 defeat of MT Melsungen in Hanover, Melsungen’s Ivan Martinovic set a season record with 16 goals.
The Bundesliga clubs now have the Christmas break and then the European Championship break. In February most of the teams will continue with the 20th matchday.