Matchday 24: Pathfinding duels among hunters and in the basement of the table

Thursday, 27 March:

• The Recken have been unbeaten for seven games (six wins, one draw), but recently scraped to two narrow victories against Hamburg (33:32) and at the Rhein-Neckar Löwen (36:35). With 37:9 points, TSV Hannover-Burgdorf are second, equal on points with leaders Füchse Berlin.
• SG BBM Bietigheim managed to break their winless streak of several months on matchday 23 with a 30:28 victory against 1. VfL Potsdam. As a result, the team in third last place increased its lead over the bottom club to eight points.
• Bietigheim is definitely not the Recken's favourite opponent: They drew 28:28 in the first leg and the SG won the two previous encounters. Hannover-Burgdorf has been waiting for a win against Iker Romero's team since 2014.
• Renars Uscins, Handball Player of the Year for the Recken, has scored 156 goals this season, more than twice as many as Bietigheim's top scorer Jonathan Fischer (73).

• The 31:24 win against Erlangen last matchday was VfL Gummersbach's fourth victory in a row. With 26:18 points, the seventh-placed team is now in contention for the European Cup places.
• After three defeats in a row, HSG Wetzlar celebrated a 30:26 win against FRISCH AUF! Göppingen and moved past Leipzig into twelfth position with 18:28 points.
• Wetzlar and Gummersbach have won each of their last four home games, with HSG prevailing 32:29 in the first leg. However, VfL clearly lead the overall statistics with a total of 28:17 wins.
• Ex-Gummersbach player Dominik Mappes is currently Wetzlar's most successful scorer in the DAIKIN HBL with 112 goals, while new German international Miro Schluroff leads the VfL rankings with 85 goals. With 195 saves, Gummersbach's Dominik Kuzmanovic is also the fifth-best goalkeeper in the league.

Friday, 28 March:

• The two clubs last met shortly before Christmas in the cup quarter-finals in Mannheim - and the Rhein-Neckar Löwen qualified for the Lidl Final 4 after a hard-fought 31:28 victory; at Cologne, they will face THW Kiel in the semi-finals on April 12.
• Prior to that, the Thuringians had won the last three encounters against the club from Baden following their promotion, as well as the 36:32 victory in the first leg.
• The Lions came very close to their fourth win in a row on the 23rd matchday, but unfortunately lost 35:36 at home to the Recken from Hanover. The club from Baden is currently eighth in the table with 25:19 points.
• Eisenach have lost its last two games against Magdeburg and in Stuttgart and is in eleventh place with 21:23 points.
• On Friday, the league's current top scorer, Marko Grgic (Eisenach/192 goals), and the second-best goalkeeper, David Späth (Löwen/204 saves), will face off.

• A duel between table neighbours: 13th-placed SC DHfK Leipzig has 17:29 points, four more than 14th-placed Göppingen.
• Leipzig have lost their last three games against Berlin, Melsungen and Lemgo and have also only won two away games, while Göppingen suffered a 26:30 defeat against Wetzlar after a surprise draw against Flensburg on the last matchday.
• The two teams' top scorers are also on a par: Leipzig's Luka Witzke has 120 goals to his name, while Göppingen's Ludvig Hallbäck has 118.
• Göppingen have won nine of their 18 encounters to date, Leipzig eight, including 27:25 in the first leg.

Saturday, 29 March:

• Long time no see is the motto in the top match of the 24th matchday: MT Melsungen and THW Kiel last met twice in the main round of the European League. There was a draw in Kassel and THW won in Kiel.
• MT have been unbeaten against the Zebras in the DAIKIN Handball Bundesliga for three games: In the first leg, Parrondo's team prevailed 25:21, in the previous season there was a draw in Kassel and a 35:30 away win for Melsungen. However, THW had previously won ten games in a row against MT and Melsungen had not beaten Kiel at home since September 2017 (29:25). The Zebras have won 31 of 38 duels.
• MT's 32:42 defeat in Hamburg on the last matchday meant they lost the lead in the table and are now third on 36:10 points behind the leading duo from Berlin and Hanover, who are level on points. In the past five games, Melsungen has lost three of its five HBL games this season.
• THW Kiel lost the 112th derby at SG Flensburg-Handewitt 33:36 on Saturday and are one rank behind MT in fourth place with 34:12 points.
• The best and third-best goalkeepers in the league will face each other in Kassel: Andreas Wolff (Kiel) has saved 230 shots so far, Nebojsa Simic (MT) 202.
• Emil Madsen is sixth in the scoring list with 135 goals, while Ian Barrufet is Melsungen's best scorer with 86 goals.
• Both teams have qualified for the Lidl Final4: Kiel is competing in Cologne for the first time, last year's finalists Melsungen for the second time in a row.

• With four wins in a row and five unbeaten games in a row, TBV is the team of the moment. Most recently, Lemgo won 35:26 in Leipzig thanks to goalkeeper Constantin Möstl and improved to ninth place in the table with 25:19 points.
• The SG travels to Lipperland with the self-confidence from the top game wins against Melsungen and most recently Kiel. Fifth in the table with 33:13, the gap to the top is four points.
• With 162 goals, Flensburg's left wing Emil Jakobsen is currently the third-best scorer in the DAIKIN HBL, while Manuel Zehnder has scored 103 goals for the TBV.
• TBV are unbeaten at home against Flensburg since 2019, with two home wins and a draw, but lost the first leg 27:36. Overall, the SG has won 36:26.

• Third week of truth for 1. VfL Potsdam: After their first win of the season with a 28:25 victory over Stuttgart, Emir Kurtagic's team lost the duel of the promoted sides against Bietigheim 28:30. With 2:40 points and one game less, Potsdam are currently four points behind HC Erlangen.
• Erlangen's second and last win of the season dates back to November 29 with a 28:24 victory over Göppingen; their first success came in the first leg against Potsdam (23:19), the first ever encounter between the two clubs.
• The best scorers for both teams are Christopher Bissel with 89 goals for Erlangen and Josip Simic, who finished second in the World Championship with Croatia, with 71 goals for Potsdam.

Sunday, 30 March:

• Beware of the risk of stumbling: The Füchse Berlin should be warned about Handball Sport Verein Hamburg, who recorded a 42:32 victory over the previous league leaders MT Melsungen on the last matchday.
• However, the Füchse's confidence is also high after eight unbeaten games in a row (seven wins, one draw), especially after they took the lead in the table with a 33:30 victory in the top-of-the-table game at champions SC Magdeburg.
• The Foxes have 37:9 points to their name, while Hamburg are in ninth place with 23:23 points.
• HSVH has been waiting for a win against the Foxes since a 33:25 victory on 16 November 2014; the two teams have won six times since then and drew 29:29 in the first leg. Nevertheless, Hamburg are just ahead in the overall statistics with 12:9 wins.
• Mathias Gidsel (Berlin) remains second in the HBL scoring charts with 173 goals, followed in fifth place by his teammate Tim Freihöfer (151). Frederik Bo Andersen is Hamburg's top scorer with 114 goals, just ahead of Leif Tessier, who scored 112 times.