14.09.2007, 10:36
Flensburg happy to meet the opponents

The German side reached two finals before and this year they will go for similar successes in the CL.

Flensburg happy to meet the opponents

In 2003, the European Handball Federation reformed the Champions League and it entered new dimensions. Since then, the Bundesliga teams have three places in the competition. However, there was only one German club always present since this reform. This club is not THW Kiel, the “triple winner” of 2007, but the local rivals from Schleswig-Holstein region, SG Flensburg-Handewitt.

Flensburg reached the Finals in 2004 and 2007, but there was no happy ending so far. The third attempt coming up?

The management does not think that they would bet he favourites of the CL:

“Of course we want to establish our place on the European top level,“ says Flensburg’s new manager, Fynn Holpert.

“The Champions League is just as important for us ast the German championship. But it is very difficult.”

Caoch Kent-Harry Andersson names the biggest opponents: “Normally THW Kiel or Ciudad Real must win the competition.”

Unluckily for SG, they will meet the Spanish team already in the group stage, early on the road. It will be the fourth occasion already that the German side meet the rich club of La Mancha.

Flensburg won in 1999 in the City Cup Final. In 2002, Ciudad Real prevailed – there are legends about a rough first leg – and won the Cup Winners’ Cup. In 2006, the Spanish side knocked Flensburg out in the semi-final and paved their way to the CL victory that season.

“They are the best team in the world, I believe,” says Flensburg’s Champions League debutant, Alexander Petersson.

“But when we have a good day we can beat them as well,” adds the Icelandic player.

Clear objectives

His coach knows what to do: “We must reach second place in the group,” Kent-Harry Andersson makes it clear. They want to show now weakness against the Norwegian champion, Drammen HK and the Polish Zaglebie Lubin.

The quite short trips to the Oslo area and just across the German-Polish border are fortunate for Flensburg. It will also be a pleasure for the fans to meet former SG players, Glenn Solberg (played for the club between 2004 and 2006) and Frode Hagen (1997-98), while Kent-Harry Andersson returns to his former team (coach of Drammen in 1993-1997). Johnny Jensen is also happy to return to his home country (“Only Sandefjörd would have been better”), just as Marcin Lijewski – “I even know some Lubin players from the youth national team,” says the Polish handballer.

TEXT: Jan Kirschner