Preview Matchday 8: North Derby in Kiel, Füchse hosts Lemgo

Sunday, 11 October:

• Although THW Kiel suffered their first defeat of the season in a 26:33 loss to champions SC Magdeburg, they bounced back on Saturday in their next top-of-the-table clash with a 29:26 victory over VfL Gummersbach. With 13:3 points, the Zebras sit third in the table ahead of the small North Derby.
• The situation is quite different for HC Hamburg: with just one win from seven matches (a 37:32 victory over Wetzlar), Torsten Jansen’s side are 16th with 3:11 points; their most recent result was a 30:34 defeat to TBV Lemgo Lippe.
• Andreas Wolff, who put in an outstanding performance against Gummersbach, is third in the Opel HBL goalkeeping statistics with 76 saves. Also third in the top scorers’ list is Kiel’s new signing Domen Makuc with 50 goals (after matchday seven), one more than the HCH’s top scorer Nicolaj Jørgensen (49).
• Hamburg have not won a single match against THW since November 2010; in the 19 subsequent encounters, there have been 18 wins for Kiel and one draw. Only one of the HCH’s three victories came in Kiel; THW have won 28 derbies, whilst five matches ended in a draw.

• After three consecutive wins, HC Erlangen suffered another defeat, losing 28:35 in Magdeburg. With 7:7 points, the Franconians are tenth in the table.
• The 28:22 victory over TSV Hannover-Burgdorf was the fourth win of the season for MT Melsungen, who are so far the only team to have beaten champions Magdeburg. The fifth-placed side currently have 9:5 points.
• HCE’s top scorer is Marek Nissen with 44 goals, seven more than his team-mate Yannik Bialowas and MT’s Danish player Aaron Mensing (both on 37).
• Both matches last season ended in draws; prior to that, there were four MT victories and two further draws, with Erlangen last winning in 2022. The overall head-to-head record stands at 14:3 in Melsungen’s favour.

• With two wins and two defeats each, Füchse Berlin finished fifth at the Club World Championship in Cairo. Just two days later came a narrow 32:31 victory away at SG BBM Bietigheim, their fifth win in six league matches. With 10:2 points, the DHB Cup winners sit fourth in the table.
• TBV Lemgo Lippe ended last week with 4:0 points. Their 34:30 victory over HC Hamburg was followed by a 30:27 win at TVB Stuttgart. Their efforts have been rewarded with a jump to eighth place, now on 8:6 points.
• In April, the two teams faced in the semi-finals of the Lidl Final4; Berlin progressed to the cup final with a 39:36 win, which they went on to win against BHC.
• In the Füchse’s victory, international player Nils Lichtlein made his comeback following foot surgery, whilst Tim Freihöfer scored his 500th Bundesliga goal.
• In both statistical categories, Berlin’s players are ahead of their Lemgo counterparts: Mathias Gidsel has scored 49 times for the Füchse so far, compared to 34 goals by Niels Versteijnen (TBV), whilst Füchse goalkeeper Lasse Ludwig has made 58 saves and Domenico Ebner (TBV) 42.
• Lemgo won the last match between the two teams in Berlin 34:33 last season; in the return fixture, Berlin prevailed by exactly the same score. Overall, the Füchse lead 28:10 in terms of wins.