Nine attempts, finally something to celebrate: The long-awaited first away win may have been a milestone for ThSV Eisenach on the way to staying in the league. "That just felt good. You could see that a huge weight has been lifted off our shoulders," said Manuel Zehnder on Dyn. The playmaker had scored a last-second seven-meter penalty to make it 27:26 at the Rhein-Neckar Löwen in Mannheim. In the last game of the year, the club from Thuringia will host HC Erlangen on Saturday.
For Zehnder, the victory in Mannheim was above all achieved in defense. "Our defense was unbelievable, what we fought for 60 minutes. Our goalkeepers saved our asses," said the 24-year-old. Coach Misha Kaufmann commented: "We have a great goalkeeper in the second half, who saves balls when the game is in danger of tipping over. In the end, we got two points, and not undeservedly so."
Goalkeepers Matija Spikic and Mateusz Kornecki recorded top statistics. Spikic made ten saves, two of them from seven-metre penalties. Kornecki came up trumps in the final phase of the game, saving more than half of all shots. "Huge respect to my young team for not giving up," said Kaufmann.
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