Victory against Berlin: Magdeburg wins Club World Handball Championship
Champions League winners SC Magdeburg have landed a hat-trick of titles at the Club World Cup and continued their impressive run of success on the international stage. The German runners-up won the final against European League winners Füchse Berlin by 34:32 (29:29, 13:16) after overtime in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, on Sunday and lifted the trophy, as they did in 2021 and 2022.
In the dramatic duel with the Bundesliga leaders in front of an almost empty crowd, Albin Lagergren and Janus Smarason were Magdeburg's best scorers with seven goals each, having beaten Poland's top team Industria Kielce 28:24 in the semi-final. Mathias Gidsel scored nine times for the capital city club, which had eliminated Spanish series champions FC Barcelona 35:34 after extra time in the final round.
SCM collected a prize money of 400,000 dollars for the triumph. The Berliners, who had won the title in 2015 and 2016, still received 250,000 dollars. "Especially in our current situation, that's a welcome source of income. It's no secret that our main sponsor and two or three other partners have left us," said Füchse Managing Director Bob Hanning before the tournament. Barcelona secured third place with a 33:30 win over Kielce.
For a long time it looked like the Berlin team would win. Thanks to several saves by their outstanding goalkeeper Dejan Milosavljev and concentrated finishing in attack, the Foxes quickly built up a three-goal cushion. That was used up again midway through the first half at 7:7.
However, Berlin, who were without the injured internationals Fabian Wiede and Paul Drux as well as Sweden's European champion Max Darj, were not impressed and pulled three goals ahead again.
Magdeburg, who were also plagued by personnel problems and missing backcourt aces Gisli Kristjansson and Philipp Weber, missed too many shots. They were initially unable to overcome this shortcoming after the changeover.
In addition, the team of Head Coach Bennet Wiegert was barely able to get a grip on Berlin's top scorers Gidsel, Mijajlo Marsenic and Jerry Tollbring (both 7). The result was a five-goal deficit at 14:19.
However, the SCM fought undaunted and equalized for the first time with 16 minutes remaining (22:22). Daniel Pettersson could have sealed victory in the dramatic final phase of regular time, but the Swede failed to beat Milosavljev with a seven-meter penalty just seconds before the end. So the game went into extra time, in which Magdeburg had more to add.
SCM coach Wiegert had already described reaching the third final in a row as "not normal". "That's crazy. It's fantastic for us and for the club," said the 41-year-old after Saturday's success against Kielce in the rematch of the Champions League final from June of this year. With the triumph against the Foxes, his team has now crowned itself once again.
Magdeburg's victory in the Super Globe marks their third consecutive title in this esteemed handball tournament. SC Magdeburg, the handball club that triumphed in the Club World Cup, will now defend their Super Globe title in their upcoming matches.
Source: www.dpa.com
