Matchday 8: Romero and Kurtagic face their former clubs, away hurdles ahead for the top duo

Thursday, 24 October:

• After three defeats in a row against Kiel, Löwen and most recently the 26:31 at HSG Wetzlar, Handball Sport Verein Hamburg have slipped to eleventh place in the table (5:9 points). HSVH have so far only won one of three home games - against Lemgo.
• With six wins in a row, the warriors from Hanover are the current high-flyer of the DAIKIN HBL. Thanks to the winning strike in the final minute by Justus Fischer, they won the most recent top game against Flensburg 31:30, which puts Hannover-Burgdorf in second place in the table.
• The U21 world champions Renars Uscins (58 goals) and Justus Fischer (41) have a combined 99 strikes this season, best HSVH scorer is Leif Tissier with 33 goals.
• Last season, both duels of both were extremely close, and the visitors triumphed in each case: HSVH won 26:25 in Hanover, Recken 30:28 in Hamburg. Hamburg have won 12 of 18 duels, all three Recken victories have occured since 2022.

• With 8:6 points, the tenth-placed team from Leipzig is the last team with a positive account. Most recently, home wins (against Erlangen and the Löwen) alternated with away defeats (in Lemgo and Magdeburg); at home, the SC DHfK still have a clean slate.
• Winning the top match against Füchse Berlin 33:31, MT Melsungen are top of the table, level on points with the Recken. MT have won the last four games - including in Kiel - but have to cope with Amine Darmoul's injury-struck end to the season.
• MT’s ability to score from all positions is also underlined by the fact that only one player - Dainis Kristopans (32 goals) - is among the top 20 HBL scorers, while the most successful Leipzig player, Franz Semper (35), has scored three more goals.
• Melsungen have won ten of the 17 duels so far, four of them in Leipzig. In the previous season, both teams won their home games.

Friday, 25 October:

• SG Flensburg-Handewitt have only taken one point from the last three games - a draw in Gummersbach followed by two defeats against Magdeburg and in Hanover - after 8:0 points at the start, the SG is now in ninth place with 9:5 points.
• With the 31:26 against Hamburg in round 7, HSG Wetzlar achieved their first home victory and second overall win of the season and are 15th in the table with 4:10 points.
• Flensburg's Emil Jakobsen tops the current goal scorers list with 58 strikes, ahead of Renars Uscins (57) and Ivan Martinovic (Löwen/55).
• Wetzlar have only won twice in 52 duels against the SG, most recently in 2015, the last draw was in 2022. Flensburg won all 26 games so far at home.

• Part two of the hammer weeks for HCE Erlangen: After the 33:38 at Rhein-Neckar Löwen and before the away game at leaders MT Melsungen, the home game against THW is coming up, with well over 6,000 fans expected.
• With 2:12 points, Erlangen are currently 16th in the table, the only victory was in the premiere of new coach Martin Schwalb against promoted side of Potsdam.
• After three victories in a row - most recently a rather lackluster 27:23 against Potsdam - THW Kiel are fifth in the table, two points behind the top duo.
• Kiel's best scorer is new arrival Emil Madsen with 47 goals, Tim Gömmel has scored 28 times for Erlangen so far.
• THW won all 18 previous games against Erlangen.

Saturday, 26 October:

• Potsdam's coach Emir Kurtagic locks horns with his former club, which he coached until 2017 - and hopes for the first point for the promoted team, which has lost all six games by now.
• On the other hand, VfL Gummersbach have been unbeaten for five games – with three wins and two draws. Most recently, Gudjon Valur Sigurdsson's team turned the tide against Eisenach and won 34:32.
• New arrival Kentin Mahé is the most successful VfL shooter before the first duel against Potsdam in HBL history.

Sunday, October 27:

• Second to last against champions and cup winners: the roles before the match in Stuttgart seem clearly distributed, even if the SCM has not been so convincing in the Champions League recently.
• The 26:25 in Erlangen on the third matchday was Stuttgart's only win so far, followed by five defeats for the 17th-placed team.
• Magdeburg have won all three HBL games after the home defeat against Kiel, most recently a confident 35:29 in the East derby against Leipzig. SCM has not yet dropped a point away from home and are currently third with 10:2 points.
• Although Magdeburg has played one game less, the Icelander Omar Ingi Magnusson is tenth on the top scorer list with 40 goals.
• A 30:29 in Magdeburg in 2020 was TVB's only victory so far in 18 encounters against the SCM.

• Iker Romero played for Füchse Berlin for four years - from 2011 to 2015 - and now, as coach of SG BBM Bietigheim, he will face his former club.
• Bietigheim have lost their last four games, most recently with the 25:30 in the Swabian duel in Göppingen, and are in 13th place in the table with 4:10 points.
• SG took all four points in away matches, so they are still waiting for their first points on home turf.
• Also because top stars Mathias Gidsel and Dejan Milosavljev were injured, the Füchse lost their last games in both the Champions League (against Lisbon) and the league (31:33 against Melsungen), had to hand over the lead in the table to the MT and are currently fourth with 10:4 points.
• The Füchse duo Mathias Gidsel (51) and Lasse Andersson (49) have scored exactly 100 goals this season, although Gidsel was recently absent. The best SG scorer is new signing Julius Kühn with 31 goals.
• Bietigheim and Berlin have only faced four times, and Füchse won all four games.

• With 10:4 points each, TBV Lemgo-Lippe and Rhein-Neckar Löwen are “table neighbours” in sixth (Löwen) and seventh place (Lemgo).
• Lemgo won the last three games of this season, most recently a 28:24 against TVB Stuttgart, and the Lions also took a 38:33 victory against Erlangen on the last match day.
• TBV won three of their four home games, the Lions suffered their two defeats in away matches, in Leipzig and Berlin, but are currently the only team to have beaten league leaders Melsungen.
• The best scorers on both teams are Ivan Martinovic (Lions/55) and Tim Suton (Lemgo/39).
• The TBV are unbeaten in the last three duels against the Lions with two victories and one draw, the Baden team has won 21:11 games against Lemgo overall.

Monday, 28 October:

• ThSV Eisenach and FRISCH AUF! Göppingen are on the same number of points, with 4:10 points each they are in 12th and 14th place in the HBL table.
• While Eisenach had an unfortunate 32:34 loss in Gummersbach last weekend, Göppingen celebrated their second win of the season with a 30:25 win against Bietigheim.
• Eisenach's German international Marko Grgic is currently the fourth best HBL scorer, Ludvig Hallbäck has scored 33 times for Göppingen so far.
• Last season both teams won their home games, with a total of seven Göppingen wins compared to two Eisenach wins.