Champions live to fight another day

They were dancing on the court, they were jumping for joy – in the end defending VELUX EHF Champions League champions HSV Hamburg won the 120 minute thriller against German rivals Füchse Berlin by one goal on aggregate and qualified for the Group Phase of the VELUX EHF Champions League for seventh straight time.

Unlucky Füchse, who were ahead of Hamburg in the German Bundesliga last season and were ahead for most of both legs, must be satisfied with a place in the EHF Cup now.

After the 30:30 (15:18) draw on Wednesday in Berlin, Hamburg were the fortunate winners of the re-match on home court, beating their German opponent by 27:26 (10:14).

So history continues that the defending champions will always be part of the VELUX EHF Champions League,

Hamburg were – like in the first leg at Berlin – behind at the break and Berlin were on course for a place in the Group Phase, leading by 14:10 at the break.

But the 6,600 spectators in Hamburg’s O2 World got behind their team in the second half.

Even with twelve minutes before the end Berlin were leading by three goals 23:20. From that moment on HSV goalkeeper Johann Bitter (13 saves in total) shut up shop, backing his team incredibly.

Berlin tried to stand firm and were still leading 26:24 with five minutes left on the clock, when Swedish newcomer Mathias Zachrisson went through the HSV defence like a knife through warm butter.

But despite having one player less on the field, Hamburg struck back, as Pascal Hens and Hans Lindberg (with a brilliant penalty shot) equalised at 26:26 with only 65 seconds remaining.

For the first time in the match, HSV had a place in the competition proper and when Horak failed against Bitter, the defending champions looked set to progress and with the last shot of the match, Adrian Pfahl hit the net to get Hamburg the win and final result of 27:26.

The top scorers in this thriller were former HSV player Fredrik Petersen, scoring eight times for Berlin, and Adrian Pfahl with six goals for the defending champions.

Hamburg will face Aalborg (Denmark), Flensburg (Germany), Velenje (Slovenia), La Rioja (Spain) and the winner of the qualification tie between Hamlstad (Sweden) and Esch (Luxembourg) in the Group Phase.