German top game as dress rehearsal

The top match of the two German CL participants is over. Thanks to a clear 37:26 victory against the Rhein Neckar Löwen, HSV Hamburg remains number one in the German Bundesliga, one point ahead of THW Kiel who defeated Dormagen on Wednesday.

After the first 40 minutes had been equal, Hamburg goalkeeper Johannes Bitter was substituted with Per Sandström. From then on the Löwen only scored six goals against the "Swedish wall" between the Hamburg posts, what made him a match winner beside HSV right wing Hans Lindbergh, who scored eleven goals. Also "Matti" Flohr, who replaced injured left wing Torsten Jansen made a strong impression.

For the disappointed Rhein Neckar Löwen Uwe Gensheimer scored six goals.

"I was everything but happy with our first half performance," HSV coach Martin Schwalb said, but added: "Also in the second half we played like intoxicated. We know that the final result doesn’t represent the real difference between us and the Löwen."

Löwen coach Ola Lindgren was satisfied with his team’s first 40 minutes, but he didn’t agree with the fighting spirit and his players’ concentration in the last 20 minutes: "We’re disappointed. Since the EURO we have had only tough matches, and that every third day. You cannot compensate that."

His team is currently 12 points behind Hamburg and 13 behind Kiel but is still in the race to qualify for next season’s Champions League as third German team.

Both teams are already qualified for the last 16 of this year’s EHF Champions League.

The Rhein Neckar will Löwen fight current leader Veszprem for the number one position in their group next weekend, HSV play in Sweden against Alingsas. Both games will be broadcasted as a live web stream on ehftv.com.