The upward trend of the German record champion THW Kiel has taken off in the Champions League.
After scoring 9:1 points in the Bundesliga, the Zebras revealed the weaknesses that had sent the former serial winner into a crisis at 26:29 (15:14) against the Slovenian champion RK Celje.
After the first half of the season, Kiel, with five points from seven games, are now only seventh in Group B, their former rivals Paris St. Germain (12 points), MKB Veszprem (11) and the SG Flensburg-Handewitt (10) have long since been divided. If the THW doesn’t increase, even the round of sixteen, for which the group sixth qualifies, gets out of reach.
Up to a quarter of an hour before the end, it looked as if Kiel could extend the series of successes, but repeatedly missed out on the chance of a decisive breakaway. At 22:22, Gislason criticized “too many individual mistakes”during the time-out, which soon afterwards provided the first guidance for the guests.
“In the first half, we made too many stupid mistakes and let Celje always approach us,”said Gislason at Sky:”After the break, there was too little pressure coming out of the back room.
The defence wasn’t flexible enough. Only the 37-year-old veteran Christian Zeitz (5 goals) and the Swede Niclas Ekberg (6) were convincing.