The European League title duel will be a repeat run of last year’s edition. At least, SG Flensburg-Handewitt, THW Kiel and MT Melsungen set up for success advancing from the quarterfinals with Montpellier Handball as the only non-German contender.
Kiel faced resilient opposition from RK Nexe and battled with a long injury list of their own. The return game lasted all the way to penalty deciding. Eric Johansson and Lukas Zerbe were major contributors for the zebra team,
– This victory felt good because we’ve had some setbacks in recent weeks. Traveling to Hamburg was one of our major goals before the season. We’ve achieved it, the left back Johansson told eurohandball.com afterwards.
Leading by five goals half-way, Melsungen could cope with a four goal loss against FC Porto and still secure a final four ticket. Though only scoring 19 times overall, Melsungen had to focus on defense in the final minutes until the triumph.
RK Vardar had no chance of completely overturning 23–33 from last week and Montpellier held on to their total advantage.
The All-German matchup between Flensburg-Handewitt and TSV Hannover-Burgdorf was tied from the start but the efforts from Emil Jakobsen and Lasse Møller in attacks and solid goalkeeping from Benjamin Buric and Kevin Møller put Flensburg clear ahead in a 43–35 goal race for the final weekend.
The final four weekend will be played on 30 and 31 May.