At 3 p.m. on Sunday, the opening whistle will sound simultaneously in nine arenas. It is the 34th and final matchday of the DAIKIN HBL. SG Flensburg-Handewitt will face the recently dethroned German champions, Füchse Berlin.
Tomorrow, Saturday, the SG will hold its final practice session of the season before heading to the capital. Following Füchse Berlin’s decisive 39-28 victory over MT Melsungen, the tension has faded from the match. Only statistics buffs take great delight in calculating how big a win the SG would need to overtake the Füchse, who are two points ahead: A victory by a margin of 33 (!) goals would be required. There has never been such a goal-fest in the 60-year history of the Bundesliga. The record is held by HSV Hamburg, which managed to build a 27-goal cushion twice over 15 years ago—against teams fighting relegation. Of course, such a result is not a realistic goal for the SG. “It no longer has any sporting significance,” SG coach Aleš Pajović sums it up. “We want to end the season with a strong performance.”
A 40-39 victory in the first leg
There’s still some suspense in Kiel, where THW aims to defend fifth place against TBV Lemgo-Lippe. Things could get dramatic at the bottom of the table. With a win or a draw against relegation-bound DHfK Leipzig, GWD Minden would send HSG Wetzlar down to the second division if the latter were to lose at home to champions SC Magdeburg. It was a close match in the first leg between the Füchse Berlin and the SG, with the latter narrowly prevailing 40-39 in December. The Berlin-based team, along with their coach Nicolej Krickau—who worked for the SG from July 2023 to December 2024—aim to maintain their momentum. They are among the top four European teams set to compete in the EHF Champions League Final Four in Cologne next weekend. “Of course, it’s a tough away game for us,” says Aleš Pajović. “But we’ve handled it well for the most part this season—and that’s how it should be on Sunday, too.” Quite a few SG fans will be there in person.