Magdeburg’s handball players cheer
Master overthrows the series winner league leader
03/05/2023, 4:05 p.m
Dark green beats light green: After ten wins in a row, Füchse Berlin lose again for the first time and at the same time have to give up their lead in the Handball Bundesliga. The SC Magdeburg provides even more excitement in the title fight – and reaches for the title defense.
The German handball champion SC Magdeburg stopped the run of the foxes Berlin most impressively. Coach Bennet Wiegert’s team inflicted the first defeat of the year on the previous table leaders with a 34:29 (15:11) in the Bundesliga top game and reported back in the exciting title race. The Dutchman Kay Smits advanced in front of 6600 spectators in the trembling Magdeburg Arena with ten goals to become the best thrower of the hosts, who punished the unusually large number of mistakes by the foxes coldly and without mercy. For coach Jaron Siewert’s hopeless Berliners, an impressive series ended after ten wins in a row across all competitions.
“After the break we play ourselves into a frenzy. I even think the result can be even higher,” said Wiegert, in the background his team celebrated “Humba, Humba, Offenderä” and “Oh, how nice” together with the cheering fans the statement victory against the capital city. “It’s a great feeling,” said SCM keeper Nikola Portner.
“In the end, the five goals are flattering, the SCM played fantastic,” admitted Berlin’s Robert Weber on the Sky microphone. And coach Siewert said disappointed before the upcoming international break: “Everything is in the deep red for me at the moment. But nothing is lost. The game does not decide who wins the championship.”
Berlin makes too many mistakes
With 37:7 points the foxes, who are dreaming of their first championship title, lost the lead in the table to the Rhein-Neckar Löwen, who had the same number of points, after the 22nd day of play. The SCM closed fourth (33:7) on four plus points to the Berliners and also has two games in hand.
Neither the hosts nor the Berliners were nervous. The only thing that caused some confusion was the unusual choice of jersey: The SCM (dark green) and the foxes (light green) wore very similar colors. The game was tight at first, with the lead changing back and forth. In the foxes, Denmark’s world champion Mathias Gidsel initially pulled the strings in the backcourt. On the side of the Champions League quarter-finalists from Magdeburg, Smits shone with a good overview and shots worth seeing.
As the game progressed, however, the foxes made more and more technical mistakes, especially in the tempo game. Magdeburg was almost always there. Because SCM goalkeeper Portner also got a hand on the ball several times, the defending champion sat down to four goals at the break.
“We are rightly behind in terms of height,” admitted Foxes manager Bob Hanning on the Sky microphone – and he had to watch from the stands as Magdeburg topped up early and played into a frenzy. The foxes, who had already lost the previous six competitive games against Magdeburg, were ten goals behind at times and in the end only played cosmetic results.