The “sheer madness” continues

Nürnberg wins against Sävehof and is now the first German team ever to reach the round of the last eight teams in the Women’s Champions League.

“This is sheer madness, absolute madness, I am absolutely overwhelmed.” Herbert Müller could not find the words, after his team had completed the sensation. 1. FC Nürnberg has reached the main round of the Champions League after the 32:26 (15:18) win against the Swedish champion Sävehof in the last group match.

Müller’s players were dancing over the court, the 1200 spectators were singing and shouting – because Nürnberg, had achieved what nobody had excepted before, is the first German team ever in Women’s the Champions League history to go through to the round of the last eight teams. “We are so happy”, said Müller, as he found his speech again.

Because it was a very close match, Sävehof was leading 18:15 at halftime and all the hopes and dreams of Nürnberg seemed to be at an end. Even in second half the Swedish team was leading for a very long time – until the “golden goal” scored by Christina Rohde in the 51^st minute, which brought the score back to an equalised status of 24:24. After that Nürnberg’s goalkeeper Marianna Gubova made some great saves and the “attack machine” with the top scorers Miriam Simakova (nine goals) and Ania Rösler (eight) started to get into a smooth rhythm.

In the end the victory was a little bit too clear, but this fact did not disturb anyone on Saturday night. “This team is absolutely impressive”, said Müller, and even the German national coach Armin Emrich, who was at the match, expressed words of honour to Nürnberg: “Great moral, great character, great performance. “

In the Bundesliga, Nürnberg has had some spectacular results, but what they showed in the Champions League was absolutely sensational. At the draw of the group phase in June in Vienna Müller was “totally shocked” concerning the high class opponents Krim Ljubljana and Zvezda Zvenigorod – and now his team is through as second of the group with three victories, two defeats and a draw.

“If someone would have said this to me before the first match, I would have said that this person should go to the psychiatrist and that he did not know anything about handball. Now its true – simply unbelievable”, says Müller.

Christina Rohde shares this opinion: “Nobody could expect this result, we are so happy – and now we hope to continue our way through Europe.” And coach Müller has three wishes for the draw of the main round: “All our possible opponents are out of reach for us. But I hope to play against Slagelse, Hypo and Györ.”

TEXT: Björn Parzen