THW Kiel starts the Bundesliga season with a narrow win against HC Erlangen!

THW Kiel starts the Bundesliga season with a narrow win against HC Erlangen!

An exciting start to the 2025 handball Bundesliga season: THW Kiel won its first game against HC Erlangen 31:29. This duel took place on Thursday evening and contained everything that makes a handball heart beat faster. Despite an early deficit, the Kiel team were able to gain the upper hand in a thrilling second half and thus celebrate their 21st win in the 21st game against Erlangen SHZ reported.

After a first half in which Kiel's attacking performance was unsatisfactory, the team under coach Filip Jicha had to accept a 12:13 halftime deficit. Erlangen, who scored their first goal in the 6th minute, appeared strong at the beginning and even led 6:5 in the 14th minute. But the Kiel team were able to fight back before the break.

The fighting spirit counts

In the second half, the THW really turned up the heat and set the first example with a 4-0 run when they increased the lead to 18:14. Emil Madsen was once again the player of the evening for Kiel and scored eight goals. After the game, co-captain Rune Dahmke praised the team's fighting spirit: “We had to fight back, but in the end we took the points,” said Dahmke.

An exciting moment of the game came in the 53rd minute when Erlangen got to 26:27 but couldn't equalize. Leon Nowottny, who came into goal in the final phase for the strong goalkeeper Andreas Wolff, saved a decisive throw from Erlangen's Maciej Gebala and secured Kiel's success. Managing director Viktor Szilagyi described the game as a tough battle and noted that it was a classic first game of the season.

Preview of the next game

The number of spectators in the Kiel stadium was 6,924, the referees were Kern and Kuschel. THW Kiel's next game is against Wetzlar on September 3rd, and the Kiel team hope that Lukas Zerbe, who injured his right ankle in the 29th minute, will be fit again by then. He has already given positive feedback and plans to take part in the next game.

THW's defensive performance was also notable, and goalkeeper Andreas Wolff had a number of good saves early on. In an intense clash with strong performances on both sides, THW Kiel was finally able to secure the two points, which are of great value for the start of the season NDR holds on.