THW Kiel beats Rhein-Neckar Löwen and seizes top spot

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With the clock already past full time, Eric Johansson stepped up to the seven-meter line, kept his nerve — and fired THW Kiel to a 37:36 (19:20) home win over Rhein-Neckar Löwen with a hard shot into the top-left corner of the goal. What sounded like a routine Bundesliga match in the Kieler Ostseehalle in front of 10,156 spectators turned out to be a thriller right down to the final second. And one that, at least temporarily, carried the German handball record champions to the top of the table.

With now 17:3 points, the "Zebras" overtook SG Flensburg-Handewitt on Thursday evening, though they have already played two more matches. Already on Sunday (3 p.m., in the video livestream at NDR.de), the still-undefeated SG (15:1 points) could reclaim first place with a home win over Füchse Berlin — so the league lead is borrowed, not won.

The German handball record champions THW Kiel are the new Bundesliga leaders thanks to a hard-fought home win.

How the 3:0 became a 19:20

THW started like a top side — 3:0 after four minutes, quickly opening up the first four-goal lead (7:3). What followed was the break in the hosts' game: The Schleswig-Holsteiners repeatedly came up short against Lions goalkeeper David Späth, who finished the night with a 33-percent save rate. Späth pulled two seven-meter penalties from Lukas Zerbe and Domen Makuc out of the net, while on the other side national teammate Andreas Wolff saved a penalty taken by Niclas Mierzwa. At the break, Kiel trailed 19:20, partly because Haukur Thrastarson buried seven of his eight throws for the visitors.

For Rhein-Neckar Löwen, the evening was particularly notable on the personnel front: Following the dismissal of head coach Maik Machulla (formerly of SG Flensburg-Handewitt), Michel Abt took charge of the team. And THW had early luck that Thrastarson wasn't shown a red card after just ten minutes: referees Steven Heine and Sascha Standke reviewed his sliding tackle into Makuc's shooting arm on the monitor, but stopped at a time penalty.

Mahé's red card and Johansson into the top-left corner

After 40 minutes, THW coach Börge Lund brought on Elias Ellefsen á Skipagötu, who took over alongside Makuc in the right backcourt — and shortly after, the game finally tipped. At 27:27, Lions playmaker Kentin Mahé positioned himself too far into the lane while defending against Zerbe: his foot caught the right winger on his final step before takeoff, and a red card was brandished (43rd). The Lions kept battling despite being a man down, leading 31:30 with nine minutes to go.

Then Kiel tightened the defense, forced turnovers — and Ellefsen á Skipagötu found the empty net to make it 34:32 (56th). Tim Nothdurft equalized at 36:36 with 46 seconds left. What followed: Julian Köster pierced the Lions' defense and drew the seven-meter penalty. After the clock ran out, Johansson stepped up — and the Swede held his nerve.

"I'm just glad the ball went in"

With seven goals, Johansson was THW's top scorer on the night. In an NDR interview, he said: "I'm just glad the ball went in. I actually didn't want to take the penalty. I was hoping Julian would score the goal, but now I'm happy and glad that I made the last goal. We played a good attack all game, and we were patient." On the Lions' side, Steinhauser was the most frequent scorer with nine goals.