Magdeburg first-ever winner of the European League

17 saves from their outstanding goalkeeper and EHF Finals 2021 MVP Yannick Green, seven goals each for Omar Ingi Magnusson and Tim Hornke and a tactical masterpiece of coach Bennet Wiegert were the ingredients for SC Magdeburg’s first final victory since 2007. The players and staff danced on the court, when the final whistle was blown after the 28:25 victory in the EHF European League final against Füchse Berlin.

Magdeburg played an outstanding first half, increased the gap to eight goals at 18:10, before Füchse managed to reduce the distance to 25:23. Finally a double strike making it 27:23 was what decided the first-ever EHF European League Final.

FINAL:

SC Magdeburg (GER) vs Füchse Berlin (GER) 28:25 (15:8)

• It was Magdeburg’s twelfth victory in a row this season, and their final account reads 15 victories and one defeat.
• Berlin had an incredibly high number of mistakes before the break - and on the other side, Magdeburg’s goalkeeper Jannick Green saved 53% of all shots, after 60 minutes, it was still 41 per cent.
• Three 1-vs-1-goals of Michael Damgaard and later on the cold-as-ice counter-attacks from both wings were crucial for a 12:6 gap in the 21st minute - followed by the second time-out called by Füchse coach Jaron Siewert.
• Berlin needed 35 minutes to scoring ten field goals - but at that moment, Magdeburg were ahead 18:10.
• Berlin rallied when Jakov Gojun scored making it 25:23, it was the first three-goal deficit since Füchse went behind 7:5 after 16 minutes.
• Obviously, Magdeburg were running low on power, but a double-strike by Damgaard and the seventh strike of Magnusson for the 27:23 less than three minutes before the end decided it.
• Omar Ingi Magnusson scored seven goals, but missed out on becoming top scorer of the competition, finishing on 94 goals, just two goals below Dane Emil Jacobsen.
• For Berlin, it was the third defeat in a final after 2017 against Göppingen and 2019 against THW Kiel., both in EHF Cup.
• Berlin’s top scorer was Hans Lindberg, who netted eight goals.

Fifth European trophy for SCM

In 1999 and 2001, they won the EHF Cup, followed by the biggest day of Magdeburg’s history, when they won the EHF Champions League Finals 2002 on aggregate against Veszprem. Coached by Alfred Gislason and players such as Olafur Stefansson and Stefan Kretzschmar. Five years later, in 2007, they won the EHF Cup for the third time, beating Aragon in the finals. Since then, SCM were semi-finalists four times, but did not make it to any final. Now, they were finalists - and won the trophy, coached by Bennet Wiegert, who was part of the SCM squad in 2002. Today’s assistant coach Yves Grafenhorst was part of the 2007 EHF Cup winning squad - now the circle closes.