It was one of the fiercest handball battles of the season with three red cards (all for the visitors) and 14 suspensions - and in the end a lucky winner: Thanks to the last goal of Lukas Mertens and a blocked direct free throw at the buzzer, SC Magdeburg beat Sporting CP 36:35 and luckily booked the ticket for the quarter-finals against HBC Nantes. The defending champions are the last German team in the competition, after Berlin and Lemgo had been eliminated earlier tonight. A 35:35 draw would have been enough for Sporting after the 29:29 tie in the first leg, but Mertens and top scorer Omar Ingi Magnusson turned a 34:35 deficit into a victory.