Record champion THW Kiel celebrated a liberating victory in his severe crisis.The Zebras won their third matchday of the Champions League against Danish champions Aalborg Handball 27:26 (13:12) and won their first two royal class points.
Master Rhine-Neckar Löwen lost his second victory in NBC Nantes’s 26:26 (16:15) second victory in France without the injured 2007 World Champion Dominik Klein.
The lions have a win and two draws on the account and the sixth round of the six best teams in sight.The Frenchman’s equaliser was scored eleven seconds to the end, while the lions had scored four goals a quarter of an hour earlier (21:17).
Kiel, who had previously been the last group B player without a point, is now regaining self-confidence for the tasks ahead in the Bundesliga.It was the worst start to the season in 15 years.
“Of course, victory was extremely important to the boys.You can see that they are extremely insecure,”said coach Alfred Gislason at Sky:”We are missing a lot from the back room, we had many opportunities that we didn’t make use of.But we fought well:” National goalkeeper Andreas Wolff admitted that the team was “blocked in the head” and spoke of a “dirty victory”.
When Gislason returned to the bench after his intervertebral disc surgery, the Kielers played with a great deal of fighting spirit, but never really managed to set themselves apart from the Danes.The biggest advantage in the first round was two points, and Aalborg was always in the lead, similar to the second half, when the team from Kiel missed many good chances.Niclas Ekberg’s goal, scored 25:24 seven minutes before the end, was a decisive factor for the narrow victory.
Runner-up SG Flensburg-Handewitt will meet the French top club Paris St. in Group B in Kiel on Saturday at 5.30 pm.Germain with national team captain Uwe Gensheimer.