The decision wasn’t made until after the final whistle. SG Flensburg-Handewitt had already looked like the unlucky loser against THW Kiel, but was still able to celebrate earning a point after a final video review.
Aleš Pajović, SG Coach: “That was a real derby. We got off to a good start, but then we had major problems with the 3-2-1 defense. We couldn’t find any solutions and committed eight technical errors by halftime. THW played very patiently and still had a very strong crossing game. Down by four at halftime, then even down by five—that’s really tough in Kiel. We then switched to seven-on-six attacks and rotated the goalkeepers. We fought until the end and then had a bit of luck. It feels like we didn’t just earn a point—we won the game.”
Børge Lund, THW coach: “That was a very intense game against a world-class team. We lost a point. We could have done a lot better in the final minutes. We can take a lot of positives from the performance. We move forward with the confirmation that there’s a lot of quality in our team.”
Simon Pytlick, SG backcourt player: “That was insane. The last ten minutes were almost unbelievable. We stayed calm and were successful playing seven against six. It doesn’t have to happen the way it did in the end. When we realized there was video review and it was five steps, we could hope the referees would notice.”
Marko Grgić, SG backcourt player: “We crept up on them very well in the last ten minutes. We were more consistent on defense, and we had Simon Möller in goal. The seven-on-six situation was very controlled. I’ll have to watch the end again. If they’re always that strict with video review, we might have ended up with a 9–9 tie.”