Will the Zebras get the Supercup hat-trick?
Handball is being played again. The times when the big halls in Germany were rather reserved for concerts, maybe ice hockey or other events are over. On Wednesday, the new season begins with the DHB Supercup. On Thursday, the first match day in the Handball Bundesliga is on the agenda.
However, we will first take a look at the Supercup, which will be played in a neutral venue, namely the PSD Bank Dome in Düsseldorf. The champions SC Magdeburg will meet the cup winners THW Kiel. That’s as good as it gets in German handball at the moment, because the champions and runners-up will also meet and it will be a rematch of the cup final.
It is currently the best German teams and two of the best club teams in the world who are fighting for the first title in the new season. Recently, the team from Schleswig-Holstein often had the edge in the direct duels.
It will also depend on how well both teams have integrated the newcomers and whether they have managed to compensate for the departures. That might have been a little easier for the Zebras. For this reason, our first tendency in the duel between Magdeburg and THW Kiel is to bet on a victory for the cup winners.
Magdeburg – Statistics & current form
The fluctuation in the squad of the German champions was truly not particularly large. However, two big names have left the club and now need to be replaced. Keeper Jannick Green has moved to Paris and is to be replaced by Swiss Nikola Portner. In addition, Magnus Gullerud has left the club and returned to his Norwegian homeland to Kolstad IL. Lucas Meister from GWD Minden is to replace him at the back.
Successful preparation of the champions
There has been no sense so far that coach Bennet Wiegert has lost two key players. The Magdeburg team has played seven test matches in preparation and has won seven of them. The opponents were of good calibre. Among others, the SCM won against Aalborg, Chambery Savoie, HC Erlangen and most recently against Hannover-Burgdorf.
If we add the last games from the pre-season, then the Anhalt team has already won ten in a row. That sounds like you can actually make a prediction on a win for the champions in the Supercup between Magdeburg and THW Kiel. However, the last game against Hannover-Burgdorf was only a very narrow 30:29 victory.
It almost sounds as if there is still some room for improvement in terms of play. Even if that is criticism at a high level: SCM has problems scoring from the back. Perhaps a powerful back-row player would have been a good choice in terms of transfers. For top teams, Magdeburg’s tempo game is perhaps predictable at some point.
Predicted line-up of Magdeburg:
Jensen, Portner – Meister, Chrapkowski, Musche, Kristjansson, Pettersson, Magnusson, Hornke, Weber, Mertens, Saugstrup, O’Sullivan, Bezjak, Smits, Damgaard, Preuss – Coach: Wiegert
Last matches played by Magdeburg:
Bundesliga
12/06/2022 – SC Magdeburg 37 – 34 Rhein-Neckar-Löwen
09/06/2022 – SC DHfK Leipzig 31 – 36 SC Magdeburg
02/06/2022 – SC Magdeburg 31 – 26 Balingen-Weilstetten
EHF European League Final Stage
29/05/2022 – SL Benfica 40 – 39 SC Magdeburg
28/05/2022 – SC Magdeburg 34 – 29 RK Nexe
THW Kiel – Statistics & current form
The THW Kiel is the juggernaut of the Handball Bundesliga. The Zebras have the biggest budget and want to attack again after missing out on the championship last season. There have been some changes in terms of personnel, but the most notable departures are Dario Quenstedt and Pavel Horak, who did not get much playing time anyway.
Without Sagosen and Pekeler
In exchange, Tomas Mrkva and Petter Överby, two players who have proven themselves in the Bundesliga, were brought in. In addition, the Kielers have won the tug of war and the two young Swedes Eric Johansson and Karl Wallinius. The squad appears stronger than last year and ready to distance the competition in the title race. We can definitely imagine playing the odds on a success for the cup winner in the duel between Magdeburg and THW Kiel.
The preparation of Kiel was mainly limited to a tournament last weekend, when they faced the two heavyweights Vive Kielce and Telekom Veszprem. Incidentally, these are two teams that competed in the Champions League Final Four in Cologne last year. The Zebras narrowly won against the Poles. Against Veszprem, Filip Jicha’s team conceded a seven-goal defeat.
Already last season, top stars Sander Sagosen (ankle fracture) and Hendrik Pekeler (Achilles tendon tear) were injured and will continue to be out for a long time. In the past season, they showed that they can compensate for these absences, even if THW would have to be rated much stronger with these two seasoned national players.
Projected line-up of THW Kiel:
N. Landin, Mrkva – Ehrig, Duvnjak, Reinkind, M. Landin, Överby, Weinhold, Wiencek, Ekberg, Johansson, Dahmke, Zarabec, Wallinius, Bilyk – coach: Jicha
Last matches played by THW Kiel:
Champions League Final Stage
19/06/2022 – THW Kiel 37 – 35 Veszprem
18/06/2022 – THW Kiel 30 – 34 Barcelona
Bundesliga
12/06/2022 – THW Kiel 42 – 35 FA Göppingen
08/06/2022 – Rhein-Neckar-Löwen 26 – 33 THW Kiel
05/06/2022 – THW Kiel 29 – 22 HSV Hamburg
Magdeburg – THW Kiel Direct comparison / H2H-balance
In total, the two teams from Magdeburg and Kiel have faced each other in 66 games. The direct comparison speaks very clearly in favour of the Zebras with 41:19 victories. Only six games ended in a draw. Last season, there was no away win in the duels between the two top teams in German handball.
First, SC Magdeburg won in Kiel in the Bundesliga. The Zebras took revenge with an away win in the GETEC Arena. The last encounter was at the end of April in the cup final in Hamburg. There, the Kielers left no stone unturned. Led by an outstanding keeper Niklas Landin, the team from Schleswig-Holstein won 28:21 and thus secured their DHB Cup triumph.
Magdeburg – THW Kiel Tip
What was the season opener between Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig in football should now happen in handball between Magdeburg and Kiel. The aim is to whet the appetite of handball fans for the new season with atmosphere and a top match. Both teams will present their newcomers in the first competitive match.
This could be due to the fact that the German champions have had a flawless preparation with seven wins in seven games. In total, the Anhalt team has ten victories to its name, but we still see the Zebras ahead in this Supercup. In our opinion, you should rather bet on a win for Kiel in the duel between Magdeburg and THW Kiel.
While THW are missing two of the league’s best players in Sander Sagosen and Hendrik Pekeler, that was also the case in the cup final, where Jicha’s team dominated the champions almost at will. That’s why we decided to play the betting odds on a win after 60 minutes for the Schleswig-Holstein team in the match between Magdeburg and THW Kiel.
