CL test: Flensburg knock Hamburg out  

“SG Flensburg-Handewitt will visit to us in the Champions League,” said Martin Schwalb, HSV Hamburg coach and closed the post match press conference.

The team of the Hanseatic city lost the Wednesday evening’s Bundesliga match with a sensational 28:39 (13:22) against their North German rivals. The words of the Hamburg coach sound like a warning of a revenge as the teams will meet once again on 8 March.

That match will be played in the Champions League in the Color Line Arena of Hamburg and HSV will try to reach the semi-finals at that game.

The prelude in the Campushalle of Flensburg was a complete failure for them. Apart from Stefan Schröder (broken hand) and Oleg Velyky (torn cruciate ligament), Torsten Jansen (calf injury) and Pascal Hens (back problems) were also missing.  

HSV had to rely on players such as Matthias Flohr, Bruno Souza and Heiko this time who are generally considered to be the second string only.

They played in an unusual formation that worked out well until 6:6 (11th minute). After this point SG gave no mercy.

“After the recent defeats we are under some pressure,” said Flensburg’s coach, Kent-Harry Andersson. “In fact, I was quite relaxed as I have seen in the last weeks that we have a very good team.”

Flensburg organised a festival in front of 6,300 supporters. “We must remember this euphoric state and clinch our first victory in the Champions League,” commented sports director Anders Dahl-Nielsen.

On Sunday SG will play at 16:30hrs against Portland San Antonio. This will be their last theoretic chance to make it to the semi-finals. There are question marks, however, after the names of Johnny Jensen (knee problems) and Marcin Lijewski (back injury). Both players could contribute to the success for a very short time on court.

HSV Hamburg will play against RK Zagreb on Sunday at 18:00hrs and they are hoping to take one or two away points from Croatia:

“We must keep our heads up,” said HSV club manager, Piet Krebs. “From this moment on, we only think of Zagreb.”

In the next day they will work hard to make up ground they lost.