Magdeburg's handball players on target: second title after 2001

Created: 06/02/2022Updated: 06/02/2022, 21:15

Magdeburg's Matthias Musche cheers.

© Ronny Hartmann/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa

SC Magdeburg has reached its goal.

With the win against Balingen, coach Bennet Wiegert's team is already the German handball champion.

The jubilation is correspondingly great.

Magdeburg - Coach Bennet Wiegert shed tears of joy in the arms of his wife Christine, the players danced exuberantly across the floor with their children: 7683 days after winning the first title in the club's history, SC Magdeburg is again German handball champion.

With the 31:26 (15:15) victory against HBW Balingen-Weilstetten, the sovereign Bundesliga leaders made the triumph on Thursday perfect.

"It's a fantastic feeling.

I'm so proud of the boys," said Wiegert on pay-TV channel Sky.

The dethroned defending champion THW Kiel can no longer catch up with the new champion in the remaining games of the season.

The official championship ceremony will not take place until June 12th at the last SCM home game against the Rhein-Neckar Löwen, but after the final whistle the champagne corks were already popping to the joyful songs of the 6449 fans in the sold-out GETEC Arena.

"It's indescribable.

We've fought our way step by step for ten years," said left winger Matthias Musche.

And national player Lukas Mertens explained: "You can't really understand it yet.

We deserved to lift the cup after the last game."

The guests proved to be party crashers for a long time.

The favorites, who missed out on defending their title in the European League last Sunday due to a narrow final defeat against Benfica Lisbon, struggled from the start and were never able to break away.

“There was a lot of mental pressure on us.

We carried a small backpack with us, but in the end we got the job done,” Wiegert summed up.

Only six minutes before the end of the game, a three-goal lead was achieved for the first time at 27:24 - the preliminary decision.

With the cheers of the spectators, the lead was certainly brought over time.

With the triumph, Wiegert delivered his masterpiece in the seventh year of his tenure.

The 40-year-old, who played in the first and so far only title win in 2001 under today's national coach Alfred Gislason, is considered the architect of Magdeburg's success.

Since the son of the 1980 Olympic champion Ingolf Wiegert took over as coach in 2015, progress has been continuous.

The triumph of the traditional club, which brought in ten East German championship titles and won the European Cup in 1978 and 1981 - the predecessor of the Champions League - had long been apparent.

The team around the Icelandic backcourt aces Gisli Kristjansson and Omar Ingi Magnusson only lost two Bundesliga games this season - in Flensburg and against Kiel.

"It's amazing to experience that," said Kristjansson.

“With Bennet Wiegert, we managed to strengthen the squad once again.

The newcomers have hit the ground running,” said SCM Managing Director Marc-Henrik Schmedt, describing the formula for success.

In addition, the champion was largely spared injuries or corona failures over the course of the season.

This is how the long-awaited jump to the top was achieved after Magdeburg had always occupied third place behind the top duo THW Kiel and SG Flensburg-Handewitt since 2018.

"It wasn't easy, but we did very well throughout the season," said Kristjansson.

The reward is the return to the Champions League, which the club won in 2002.

With the exception of goalkeeper Jannik Green (Paris Saint-Germain) and Magnus Gullerud (Kolstad IL), who are leaving the club, the club and its top performers are making long-term plans.

"I hope this isn't the last title," said backcourt player Marko Bezjak.

dpa