Defending champions SC Magdeburg have missed out on the quarter-finals of the DHB Cup. The Elbe city team lost 28:29 (14:14) at record winners THW Kiel in front of 7,521 spectators. Michael Damgaard was Magdeburg's top scorer with eight goals. The SCM still has a chance of winning the Bundesliga and the Champions League.
Magdeburg had to do without Philipp Weber (thigh) as well as the long-term injured Felix Claar and Tim Hornke and had problems in its positional attack against an aggressive Kiel defense at the start. After a defensive-minded opening spell, the game picked up pace, but the teams remained evenly matched. Two turnovers by Kiel gave SCM a two-goal lead (10:8/19th), but the teams went in at the break tied.
Magdeburg exploited a double overtime and the advantage of the throw-in and went two goals ahead again after the break (17:15/33rd), but Kiel equalized again. Magdeburg's Sergey Hernandez saved a number of Kiel's attempts, while SCM failed to score three times from a seven-meter penalty by Thomas Mrkva at the other end. THW took the lead (24:25) with seven minutes remaining because Magdeburg made too many mistakes. Kiel pulled two goals clear in the final phase and just managed to hold on for victory.
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