That's not all: At the beginning of November, for the first time in the history of the IHF Super Globe, two teams from one country dueled in the final: Germany. In the end, the SCM celebrated the title hat-trick with a dramatic final victory over Füchse from Berlin. For the first time in history, the winners of the European League/EHF Cup, Champions League and IHF Super Globe come from the LIQUI MOLY HBL.

And the dominance of the HBL clubs continues in the current European Cup competitions: first TSV Hannover-Burgdorf and Rhein-Neckar Löwen confidently prevailed against strong opponents in the qualification for the European League. And this week all four German sides in this competition clinched their early berth into the main round. Particularly noteworthy: Although SG Flensburg-Handewitt, Löwen and Füchse, for example, play in groups that could also be in the Champions League, all four German representatives have so far won all four group games and are all leaders of their groups.

SG Flensburg-Handewitt, which had previously outclassed the Swiss champions Kadetten Schaffhausen, among others, twice defeated the Champions League experienced Norwegian runner-up Elverum. Rhein-Neckar Löwen have twice defeated the 2022 European League winners Benfica Lisbon and also the former Champions League finalist HBC Nantes. The Foxes recently celebrated two wins against Dinamo Bucharest, which has now become an offshoot of the great FC Barcelona, with players like Luka Cindric, Ali Zein and Cedric Sorhaindo as well as ex-Barca coach Xavi Pascual. On paper, the warriors from Hanover have the easiest group and recently beat AEK Athens twice to be top of the table without losing any points.

The two best teams in the eight groups of four in the European League qualify for the main round, which starts after the EHF EURO 2024 in Germany. There will be the first HBL-internal duels between the Lions and the Recken in Group I, with Flensburg and Berlin staying out of each other's way.

But also in the top flight competition, German record champions THW Kiel and defending Champions League champions SC Magdeburg are clearly on course for the knockout phase: After the 27:27 draw in Aalborg (Denmark) on Wednesday night, the Kiel team are still leaders in Group A and are one point ahead after eight match days the Danish runner-up and two points each ahead of the trio Paris Saint-Germain, Kolstad (Norway) and Szeged (Hungary). SC Magdeburg, which will play in the second Danish-German duel at GOG in Odense this Thursday, are the first pursuer of the top duo Barcelona/Veszprem by two points - and has won the last five games in the Champions League.

THW and SCM have the best chance of being first or second in their group to skip the round of 16 and move straight into the quarter-finals, which is an enormous advantage on the way to the EHF FINAL4 in Cologne at the beginning of June. It is not yet clear where the Final4 in the European League will be played - but the fact that this competition (including the EHF Cup) is a German domain is shown by 19 titles for Bundesliga teams in the last 21 years. So the dream of another double lives on.

Photo: IMAGO / foto2press