Can Szeged tame the Zebras again?

Will two Hungarian and no German teams be in the pot for the VELUX EHF FINAL4 draw on Tuesday in Cologne? Veszprem (in Paris) and Szeged (in Kiel) have their fate in their own hands.

It has been four years since THW last failed to reach Cologne and the star-laden squad hope their 10,250 fans and the return of goalkeeper Andreas Palicka will see them progress.

VELUX EHF Champions League Quarter-final, second leg:
THW Kiel (GER) vs Pick Szeged (HUN)
Sunday 19 April, 19:30 hrs local time live on ehfTV
First leg: 29:31

Will the sixth edition of the VELUX EHF FINAL4 in Cologne be the first one without the participation of a German team? After defending champions SG Flensburg-Handewitt and Rhein-Neckar Löwen fell at the Last 16 stage, three-time champions THW Kiel have a battle on their hands against Pick Szeged after a 29:31 loss in Hungary in the first leg of the quarter-finals.

While Szeged claimed their third consecutive win against a German team, having eliminated Löwen in the Last 16, it was the first THW defeat after impressive eleven consecutive wins in this Champions League season. Kiel’s only previous loss was the opening round at Zagreb.

Kiel’s home record will certainly give them confidence: In the 2014/15 season all home matches in Europe were won by at least two goals, five of them with a difference of five or more goals.

“Szeged are very clever, but we know exactly in which departments we need to improve,” says THW captain Filip Jicha. Mainly the unstoppable Slovenian Dean Bombac caused trouble in the first leg: “But I think we know how to defend and to stop him now,” adds Jicha.

Nothing to lose

Since winning the EHF Cup in 2014, which included beating hosts Berlin the semi-final, Szeged have continued to improve and are now on the verge of the club’s biggest success.

“We extended our dream for one more week, we will try to live our dream in Kiel,” said coach Juan Carlos Pastor, who is “impressively proud” of his team.

“We have nothing to lose in Kiel,” adds Bombac, who will have a big part to play should his side surprise the German champions once again.

Besides the support of 10,250 fans in the Sparkassenarena, Kiel hope for the comeback of goalkeeper Andreas Palicka, who has been out since middle of March due to a torn tendon in this thigh.

“I’ll try everything, though the doctors said that I need two more weeks of recovery,” Palicka was quoted as saying on the THW website.

Kiel will definitely miss the second Swedish goalkeeper Johan Sjöstrand (virus) and left wing Dominik Klein (ACL rupture).

“We need our fans as an additional player and we have to be more focused in attack to make it to Cologne,” claims goalkeeper Steinar Ege.