Matchday 21: Flensburg welcomes the league leaders, Göppingen at the Lions

Wednesday, 26 February:

• The Lions lost their last game by a clear 26:35 at VfL Gummersbach and thus conceded their first defeat after four unbeaten games. In addition, their injury list has become even longer.
• With 23:15 points, Sebastian Hinze's team is currently seventh in the table and eleven points and seven places ahead of 14th ranked FRISCH AUF! Göppingen.
• Göppingen have lost four of their last five games, on Sunday they lost 25:28 to champions SC Magdeburg.
• With 130 goals, Lion’s shooter Ivan Martinovic is currently the fifth best scorer in the DAIKIN HBL, but like Patrick Groetzki was injured in the defeat in Gummersbach.
• The Lions won the first leg in Göppingen at the end of November with 36:30, in the previous season the Baden team scored 3:1 points against the Swabians, and the overall record is 27:9 wins in favor of the Lions.

Thursday, 27 February:

• After the World Championship break, Handball Sport Verein Hamburg are undefeated with three wins and one draw, recently Torsten Jansen's team won 37:36 against promoted SG BBM Bietigheim. With 21:19 points, Hamburg are currently eighth in the table.
• One place and one point (20:18) behind HSVH, VfL Gummersbach are ninth in the table, but have played one game less. The 35:26 against Rhein-Neckar Löwen was a liberating blow for VfL - the second win only in the last seven games.
• In the reverse fixture, VfL took a 33:29 victory, and are also unbeaten in the last four games against Hamburg with three wins and one draw. The last HSVH success dates back to October 2022 - but in the overall statistics the northern Germans lead with 18:9 wins.
• With 177 saves, VfL goalkeeper Dominik Kuzmanovic is in third place in the DAIKIN HBL ranking, the best scorers of both clubs are Leif Tissier with 95 goals for Hamburg and Milos Vujovic with 74 goals for VfL.

• Zero points from the three games against Gummersbach and the top duo from Hannover-Burgdorf and Melsungen is the TVB record after the World Championship break, most recently Stuttgart lost 29:35 at MT Melsungen.
• TBV Lemgo Lippe won their last DAIKIN HBL game by a narrow margin of 22:21 against the still pointless promoted team VfL Potsdam – it was the first TBV win after the winter break, although they had previously achieved a surprising draw against Füchse Berlin.
• Two Swiss players are currently the best scorers for both clubs: Samuel Zehnder scored 92 goals for Lemgo, Lenny Rubin 82 times for Stuttgart. TBV goalkeeper Constantin Möstl is also having a very strong season with 152 saves to date.
• Lemgo won the reverse fixture against Stuttgart 28:24 – in the last six duels between the two teams, the home team has won each, and Lemgo leads overall with 10:5 wins.

• Second eastern duel in a row for SC DHfK Leipzig. After the Saxons were able to end the series of four defeats in a row against Eisenach with a 34:34 on the last match day, the team is now in 13th place with 15:23 points.
• Potsdam recently showed their best performance of the season against Lemgo, but after the 21:22 they are still waiting for the first point in their Bundesliga history.
• Leipzig won the first leg on December 23 35:26 - it was the Saxons' only DAIKIN HBL victory in the last eight games.
• Two Croatian World Championship silver medalists will face in Leipzig: Marko Mamic for the hosts will play against Potsdam's current top scorer, Josip Simic (59 goals). Leipzig's best scorer Luca Witzke has 94 goals.

• After the 27:25 coup against THW Kiel two weeks ago, HSG Wetzlar were also close to success against second-placed TSV Hannover-Burgdorf, but ultimately lost 32:34. With 16:24 points, Wetzlar are currently in twelfth place in the table.
• Eisenach reached 3:3 points after the World Championship break, most recently took a 34:34 against Leipzig. With 19:19 points, the Thuringians are tenth.
• The 30:22 in the first leg was Eisenach's second clearest victory of the season below the 35:25 against Göppingen, HSG won twelve times in total, the ThSV five times. Eisenach's last away win in Wetzlar was in 2004.
• With 158 goals, Eisenach's Marko Grgic is now back in first place on the DAIKIN HBL scorer list, the best Wetzlar shooter is Dominik Mappes with 97 goals.

Friday, 28 February:

• Promoted team against record champions: THW Kiel have won all five games against SG BBM Bietigheim in the DAIKIN HBL so far, the result of the reverse fixture was 38:29.
• The last few weeks could not have been more different for both teams: THW have won nine of the last ten league games, SG BBM only scored one point in the same period. The last win was on October 31 with a 26:21 in Wetzlar.
• Kiel won 28:24 against HC Erlangen on the last match day and are currently fourth with 30:10 points, Bietigheim are still three points ahead of a relegation place after the unfortunate 36:37 in Hamburg, ranking  in third-to-last place with 8:32 points.
• With 200 saves, THW goalkeeper Andreas Wolff leads the HBL statistics, Bietigheim's Daniel Rebmann has 121 saves to his name.

Saturday, 1 March:

• After the 31:36 defeat on Sunday in the top game against Füchse Berlin (the first one for new coach Ales Pajovic), SG Flensburg-Handewitt (28:12) are in fifth place and already six points behind leaders MT Melsungen (34:6).
• Including the 33:24 first leg win on 29 November, MT Melsungen have only lost one league game (in Magdeburg), winning the rest. MT also won the cup quarter-finals against Flensburg in the current season with 30:28.
• The win in the reverse fixture was only MT's second victory against SG in the DAIKIN HBL, the first being a 33:32 on September 12th 2015 in Flensburg. The overall record is 31:2 wins for Flensburg and six draws.
• SG have already scored 71 more goals than MT in 20 games this season (677:606), but have also conceded 66 goals (584:518) more. The goalkeepers have similar rates: Flensburg's world champion Kevin Møller is on 151 saves, Melsungen's Nebojsa Simic stopped 175 shots.
• In terms of the best scorer, however, Flensburg are clearly ahead: World Champion Emil Jakobsen has scored 144 goals, almost double compared to Melsungen's Latvian Dainis Kristopans (73).
• Both teams have already qualified for the knockout phase of the European League.

Sunday, 2 March:

• HC Erlangen announced on Tuesday that it had parted ways with its previous Head Coach Martin Schwalb, who took over the Franconians in October 2024. According to the HCE, the two current assistant coaches Johannes Sellin and Matthias Obinger will take over the team until further notice.
• The second-to-last team host the second-ranked team. While Hannover (32:8 points) has won eight of their last ten games, HC Erlangen (5:33 points) managed only one win and one draw in the same period.
• Most recently, HCE lost 24:28 to THW Kiel, while TSV Hannover-Burgdorf turned the game against HSG Wetzlar around and won 34:32.
• Hannover-Burgdorf won the last three games against HCE, including the 31:25 in the reverse fixture. In total, the Recken left the field as winners twelve times, the Franconians four times.
• With 144 goals for the Recken, the newly elected German handball player of the year Renars Uscins has scored almost twice as many goals as Christopher Bissel, the most successful HCE scorer (73).

• The match will be a special one for Leipzig goalkeeper Domenico Ebner, who will face the club of his future Italian national coach Bob Hanning.
• Füchse won the top game of the last matchday 36:31 against SG Flensburg-Handewitt, are unbeaten in five games and are currently third in the table with 31:9 points.
• Since September 2021, Berlin have won all seven games against Leipzig in the DAIKIN HBL, the first leg ended 37:32. Overall in direct duels, the Füchse have 14 victories and SC DHfK has four victories on their account.
• Three Füchse players have already scored more than 100 goals this season: Mathias Gidsel (155), Tim Freihöfer (130) and Lasse Andersson (106).

• It is the first HBL duel between the two teams, as the first leg had to be postponed to 25 May due to SC Magdeburg's participation in the Club World Championship.
• SCM recently won 28:25 in Göppingen and are in sixth place with 25:9 points, but have played three games less than their competitors.
• The list of injured players at the German champions has grown longer, as Gisli Kristjansson is now also out.