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Cologne (dpa) - Glorious crowning glory of an extraordinary Corona year: Thanks to a gala performance, THW Kiel has ascended to the throne of handball in Europe for the fourth time in the glorious club history.
The German record champions won the final of the 2019/20 Champions League season against FC Barcelona on Tuesday in Cologne with 33:28 (19:16) and took the title in the premier class again after 2007, 2010 and 2012.
The best THW thrower was Niclas Ekberg with eight goals.
The sporting success was sweetened with a victory bonus of 500,000 euros, which the THW can really use in the economically difficult Corona period.
It is a very special triumph for trainer Filip Jicha, who has already won the Champions League twice as a player with Kiel.
Only 22 hours after the show of strength in the semi-final against Telekom Veszprem, won 36:35 after extra time, the Kielers got off to a good start in the 300th Champions League game in their club's history.
World handball player Niklas Landin was the usual secure support in goal with numerous parades and the THW acted very efficiently in the attack.
The reward was a two-goal lead after ten minutes.
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The only downer: At this point, backcourt ace Sagosen had already received two time penalties.
For example, Captain Domagoj Duvnjak, who was not yet fully in command after a corona illness, had to work in the defense earlier than planned.
The Croatian mastered this task reliably as usual.
Sagosen did the short breather in opposing possession visibly well.
The Norwegian was unstoppable and shone on the offensive both as a preparer and an executor.
So Kiel sat down for the first time on four goals at 13: 9.
However, Barcelona could not be shaken off.
The Spaniards, who had won both duels with THW in the group stage of the current Champions League season, came back with a 3-0 run and three and a half minutes before the break they equalized at 15:15.
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The final phase of the first half belonged again to the Kielers, who took a well-deserved three-goal lead into the cabin.
After the change, the THW continued to be highly concentrated and did not allow itself to be disturbed by small mishaps.
In the middle of the second half, the lead at 25:20 was the first time five goals.
But then the concentration decreased a bit in the attack.
Slight ball losses brought Barcelona back into the game.
In this difficult phase, it was mainly thanks to Landin that the Catalans didn't get closer than three goals.
The Danish world champion keeper gave his people in front the necessary security with several brilliant acts.
In the hot final phase, Kiel could not be wrested from victory.
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