SC Magdeburg has climbed the European handball throne for the second time since 2002. The German runners-up around the surprising returnee Gisli Kristjansson defeated the Polish top club KS Kielce with the German national goalkeeper Andreas Wolff after extra time in the thriller final in Cologne by 30:29 (26:26, 13:15) and thus repeated his historic success from before 21 years.
Kay Smits (8 goals) was the best pitcher for the tireless SCM on Sunday in front of 19,750 spectators in the sold-out Lanxess Arena Kristjansson pulled over to his side in the final meters.
In 2002, the team from Saxony-Anhalt, under today’s national coach Alfred Gislason, was the first German team to triumph in the premier class. At the Final4 in Cologne, Magdeburg unexpectedly crowned its comeback season in the most important European club competition with the title. Wolff, on the other hand, has to wait for the first Champions League triumph of his career despite a strong personal performance. The 2016 European champions also went empty-handed with Kielce in the final last year, against FC Barcelona in a seven-meter throw.
Kristjansson plays – despite a dislocated shoulder in the semifinals
Even the dramatic semi-final against Barcelona, which the SCM defeated in a crazy game 40:39 after a seven-meter throw, had caused tremendous emotions among the Magdeburg team – albeit in several respects. Key player Kristjansson’s injury, which dislocated his shoulder, spoiled the huge celebration.
However, the Iceland international was surprisingly included on the match report sheet around 24 hours later. “It won’t be worse than the surgery, which has to come anyway. Then I can’t take away a player’s chance to play maybe the biggest game of his career,” said Magdeburg coach Bennet Wiegert before starting DAZN. First, the exceptional player took a seat on the bench. Nevertheless, Magdeburg got off to a dream start: Thanks to strong protection and two early saves by Nikola Portner, the pace game worked extremely well, and in the 6th minute the score was already 4:1.
Magdeburg catch up four goals behind in the second half
But that didn’t shock the experienced Poles. Wolff initiated a strong phase in Kielce with a seven-meter save against Kay Smits (8th), with the 6:7 (15th) the Polish champions took the lead for the first time. Wolff was now good in the game. Wiegert reacted and brought on Kristjansson, who scored immediately in his first attack.
Kielce found his way in attack, where Alex Duschebajew intelligently pulled the strings, but now he was better at it. For the first time, what national coach Gislason had predicted before the start was indicated: “Magdeburg is the big underdog.” At 18:14 (35 th ) Kielce pulled away with four goals for the first time. But comebacker Kristjansson was now getting stronger. Immediately before crunch time, a medical emergency in the press box caused the game to be interrupted for almost a quarter of an hour – shortly after the restart, the SCM equalized and initiated an exciting final phase. In the extension Magdeburg had the better nerves.