THW Kiel arrived with an unbeaten streak of seven EHF Champions League matches (five wins, two draws) and as group winner in Montpellier – and then were sensationally clearly crushed by the hosts. Profiting from the enormous number of Kiel mistakes and scoring from all positions, the French record champions made a huge step towards their second appearance at the TruckScout24 EHF FINAL4 in Cologne after winning the trophy in 2018.

The 30:39 was Kiel’s second biggest away defeat in the last 15 years below the 24:42 at Paris and even bigger than the 30:38 at Nantes – which underlines their relationships to away games at France. After getting eliminated in the quarter-finals by PSG in 2021 and 2023, again a French side seems to become the stumble block for the four-time winners. And after winning the last group match at Barcelona, Montpellier proved that they are a real top team.