Hamburg and Kiel reach German cup final four

Two of the four German Champions League participants reach Cup Final Four that will be played in Hamburg on 29-30 March.

After the fall of SG Flensburg two rounds ago against HSG Nordhorn, one of the quartet had to go out in a direct duel. The top match of the quarterfinal was played by HSV Hamburg and VfL Gummersbach.

THW Kiel did not have any problems to qualify against second division team of Friesenheim (36:27). HSV followed them to the Final Four, but it was much harder work for them to beat Gummersbach – a team that never made it to the Final Four.

Hamburg won 33:30 (18:15) at home. The best HSV player was world champion Pascal Hens with ten goals. “His performance was absolute world class,” said HSV coach Martin Schwalb after the match: “Incredible!”

But Gummersbach started better and were leading until the 28th minute when HSV scored four consecutive goals and profited from the great saves of goalkeeper Johannes Biter. It was 18:15 at halftime.

Even as Gummersbach closed the gap to 22:24, HSV were the better team, especially because of Hens and captain Guillaume Gille who both played a superb game.

On the other side VfL’s goalkeeper, Goran Stojanovic, also had a great day. By this, Gummersbach even had the chance to win the match in the very last minutes as the difference was only two goals again (29:31), but German international Torsten Jansen secured the victory that gives HSV the chance to win the cup again on home court – and it means also good money.

“It was a close match where we made a lot of mistakes, but fought until the end,“ said Schwalb. “We are very proud to play the Final Four, specially as it will take place in Hamburg,” he added.

VfL coach, Alfred Gislasson, was disappointed:

“We were close to the big surprise. We lost our heads in the decisive phases of the match. We never gave up, but stupid mistakes cost us the Final Four.”