The current season

Only two weeks ago, on 8 February, the reverse fixture was played in Berlin, when Füchse narrowly won 32:31. Flensburg's comeback came too late, the best scorer in the first duel was Flensburg's Dane Emil Jakobsen with eight goals - ahead of five more Scandinavians: Lasse Andersson (7), Jim Gottfridsson, Hans Lindberg, Simon Pytlick and Mathias Gidsel (all six goals). Füchse goalkeeper Dejan Milosavljev stood out with 15 saves.

After the 30:26 against Lemgo and Magdeburg’s defeat in Hanover last weekend, Füchse Berlin are sole leaders of the table again since with 38:4 points. With the exception of the defeat in Berlin, SG Flensburg-Handewitt had four wins in the last five games, are third ranked with 32:10 points, already six points behind the league leaders. Together with Magdeburg, Flensburg are the best home team and still have a clean slate in the Campus Arena with 22:0 points, on the other side, Füchse are the best away team with 17:3 points, have only lost in Kiel so far and tied in Gummersbach. Since their last defeat (26:30 in Kiel on 19 November), Füchse have only given one point from their hands in nine games (against Göppingen) and have won eight.

Top scorers

With ten goals against Lemgo, Füchse player Mathias Gidsel increased his goal tally to a total of 163 strikes this season - all of them field goals. SG's best scorer is also a Dane: Emil Jakobsen with 122 hits, but he is 24 goals behind his compatriot Lasse Andersson (146), who is the second best Füchse thrower. The next Füchse Dane Hans Lindberg follows with 108 season goals - he is number one in the all-time HBL scorer list with a total of 3025 goals.

The previous HBL balance

Berlin have won seven of 37 games against Flensburg so far including the current season, SG 27, six games ended in a draw. Flensburg have won 12 of 18 games at home, three games each ended in a draw or with Berlin away wins; Füchse last won in Flensburg in 2021. The biggest SG home win was a 29:18 in December 2012, in the previous season both teams shared the points (31:31).

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The EHF EURO balance of both squads

A total of seven Danes who won the silver medal at the European Championships are in the squads of both teams: Emil Jakobsen, Mads Mensah, Johan Hansen, Luskas Jörgensen, Simon Pytlick (all Flensburg) as well as Hans Lindberg and Mathias Gidsel (both Berlin). Two more Swedish players won bronze medals: Jim Gottfridsson (Flensburg) and Max Darj (Füchse). Gidsel became top scorer at the European Championships with 54 goals together with Martim Costa (Portugal) and was awarded All-star team member. He was MVP at the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo and the 2023 World Cup. Jim Gottfridsson received this MVP award at the 2018 and 2022 European Championships. Both teams each have one German EHF EURO participant in their rosters: captain Johannes Golla (SG) and Nils Lichtlein (Füchse), one of five U21 world champions in the Berlin squad. The SG count on a total of 14 EHF EURO participants from eight nations, the Foxes on nine from five countries.

German Cup

Both teams have dueled once so far at the REWE Final4: in Hamburg in 2014, in the final, which ended with a 22:21 win for the Füchse (under former coach Dagur Sigurdsson), Berlin celebrated their only domestic title to date. With four cup trophies, 13 final participations and 14 REWE Final4 appearances, SG Flensburg-Handewitt are the second most successful club in the history of the DHB Cup below record winners THW Kiel. After the hat-trick from 2003 to 2005, SG achieved its last cup triumph to date in 2015. The Flensburg team last reached the final in 2017 (defeat against Kiel), and in 2023 they lost the semi-final at the REWE Final4 in Cologne against the eventual cup winners Rhein-Neckar Löwen. In addition to 2014, the Füchse qualified for a REWE Final4 in 2015 and 2019.

Both teams have qualified for the current REWE Final4, but are avoiding each other in the semi-finals (Füchse face Magdeburg and Flensburg duel with Melsungen). Flensburg clearly won their quarter-final 37:25 against Hamburg, Füchse prevailed with 31:29 against VfL Gummersbach.

International titles: SG Flensburg-Handewitt is the only club with titles in four different European cup competitions. The SG won the EHF Cup in 1997, the City Cup in 1999, the cup winners' cup in 2001 and 2012 - and, to top it all, the Champions League in 2014. Foxes are not only two-time club world champions (2015, 2016), but also two-time winners of the EHF Cup (2015 and 2018) and the current title holder in the European League.

Current international season

Both teams had qualified for the main round of the current European League as group winners. While the Füchse won all six group games, Flensburg lost the second leg against the Kadetten Schaffhausen. In the main round, the SG took two clear victories so far; Berlin lost at home against Sporting Lisbon after a win in Constanta, Romania on Tuesday.

Photo: Voigt