League leader disenchanted, the dozen full: THW Kiel is back on the German cup throne.
The record champion defeated SC Magdeburg 28:21 (12:13) in the final of the Final Four and, thanks to a show of force in the second round, secured his twelfth cup victory.
Goalkeeper Niklas Landin with numerous saves was the guarantor of Kiel's deserved victory in a high-class final.
The best goalscorers in Kiel were the Norwegian backcourt player Sander Sagosen with eight and the former international Hendrik Pekeler with six goals.
In the Bundesliga, THW, which still has chances of winning the title in the Champions League, is six points behind Magdeburg with eight games to go before the end of the season.
The SCM, who had their best thrower in Omar Ingi Magnusson (6 goals), meanwhile missed their third title win in the cup competition after 1996 and 2016 and the chance of a possible first double in the club's history.
Heated, high-class and hard-fought: In the new edition of the 2019 final (then 28:24 for Kiel), both teams played an extremely intense game in front of 13,200 spectators in the sold-out Barclays Arena, which the two lines of defense and, above all, two strong goalkeepers initially put their stamp on.
Kiel's Landin showed one save after the other, just like in the final phase of the semi-final the day before against Lemgo (28:26), his Danish national team colleague Green on the other side was in no way inferior to him.
Emotions also ran high on the sidelines.
Especially on the Kiel side, coach Filip Jicha and his players quarreled loudly with the referee's decisions, at the break there was almost a scuffle on the pitch.
"Both teams don't give anything away," said national coach Alfred Gislason at half-time on the ARD microphone and spoke of a "typical final.
The emotionality is great.
The defense is very good on both sides.”
Handball was of course also played.
The record champions from Kiel initially had the game under control and were leading 6:4 after a quarter of an hour.
But after superstar Sander Sagosen had increased to three goals for the first time (9:6), the Kielers suddenly didn't get along for five minutes.
Magdeburg used the weak phase for a 5-0 run and turned the game around just before the break.
In the second section, the pace picked up significantly.
Kiel in particular pushed the pace noticeably and after 41 minutes took the lead again for the first time through Steffen Weinhold (18:17).
After Hendrik Pekeler made it 22:19 with a worthwhile spin twelve minutes before the end, the zebras could not be denied their first cup win since 2019.
The cup finals were held in Hamburg for the last time in 28 years, and the Final Four will be played in Cologne from next year.
"The two days were a perfect end to great decades in Hamburg," said league manager Frank Bohmann to SID: "Once again we experienced three great games and a breathtaking atmosphere.
Of course there are tears in the eyes when we say goodbye, but we are now looking forward to Cologne.”