IMAGO/Christian Heilwagen
Then he pulls through: Magdeburg’s Gísli Þorgeir Kristjánsson (r.) in the game against Eisenach (Eisenach, December 27th, 2025)
Three games in six days: Christmas week was not a contemplative and relaxing one for SC Magdeburg. The reigning Champions League winner basically has a full program: In the tenth year under coach Bennet Wiegert, the SCM qualified early for the quarter-finals of the European Cup, and the Final Four in the DHB Cup is also a miss. Then there was the Club World Cup, in which the Elbstadt team suffered their only competitive defeat of the season and were eliminated in the semi-finals against Veszprém.
So it’s no wonder that the Magdeburgers showed themselves to be humane at the end of the year: On the fourth Advent they narrowly won against bottom-placed Leipzig at home with 29:28 (18:12), and on December 23rd they separated from THW Kiel 26:26 (13:13). With only two minus points, the league leader still runs away from the competition.
ThSV Eisenach, formerly BSG Motor, also had to believe in it: On Saturday evening, the Thuringians kept the match open for a long time. In the 90th meeting between the traditional clubs, the score was 14 at halftime. After the break, however, the Eisenachers had teething problems: no goal was scored for almost six minutes. Only after coach Sebastian Hinze took a time out and ordered his team to play the “Wartburg quartet” did the Eisenach offensive regain its bite. ThSV cultivated the formation with four backcourt players last season under the then coach Misha Kaufmann, who now coaches TVB Stuttgart, thereby setting a tactical trend. In the Eisenach variant, the quartet often breaks up shortly before the end, with one of the backcourt players acting as a circle runner, disorganizing the opposing defense.
In the end, that wasn’t enough against the SCM: Wiegert’s team pulled away in the middle of the second half and won safely. Others lived riskier lives: In the small Werner Aßmann Hall, referee Sascha Schmidt knocked down Hinze, who was standing on the sidelines, while running backwards. Ouch.
As beautiful as it is to look at, Magdeburg handball is painful: the constant one-on-one takes energy and gets on your bones. However, with the staff put together by Wiegert, this is possible and has led to the Saxony-Anhalts becoming the ultimate in club handball in the men’s area internationally. So far, the team has been largely spared from injuries – the illness from the previous season cost them the title.
Eisenach, on the other hand, does not live up to expectations as a relegation candidate: If Kaufmann’s farewell did not happen without a hitch and the Wartburgers had to completely reorganize their backcourt after departures – including national player Marko Grgić to Flensburg – they are stable in 13th place at the European Championship break with 13 points.
Leipzig is different: A horror year is coming to an end for SC DHfK. In front of their home crowd they lost to the Rhein-Neckar-Löwen with 26:30 (16:15). The game started hectic: In his first timeout, Leipzig coach Frank Carstens pointed out that attacks should be played out longer. Also a sign of the crisis: As a midfield team, the SC DHfK played a well-kept, fast-paced handball for years, but today uncertainty predominates. After twelve minutes it was already 8:3 for Mannheim. But the Messestadt team crawled back into action and even took the lead at halftime. Afterwards the Saxons showed their different face again: they remained without a goal for the first ten minutes of the second half. Even though only Domenico Ebner – whose departure to Lemgo in the summer has already been decided – and Tomáš Mrkva in the final minutes did everything to keep their team in the game, nervous Leipzigers famously threw the Mannheim goalkeeper David Späth in the decisive minutes.
SC DHfK is at the bottom with just five points, the same number as it is now behind the saver 16th place. If the class is not maintained, the problem analysis will have to begin before the relegation season: the second half of the 24/25 season was already a challenge. Because the offer was tempting, half-right Viggó Kristjánsson was sent to Erlangen in the winter. In the summer, coach Rúnar Sigtryggsson, who now coaches Wetzlar, was fired; This also scared away playmaker and coach’s son Andri Már Rúnarsson. He was actually supposed to inherit Luca Witzke, who moved to Flensburg. Rúnarsson also now plays in Erlangen.
In mid-November, head coach Raúl Alonso and sports director Bastian Roscheck were on leave after a painful away defeat in direct competition in Minden. Carstens is now supposed to pull the cart out of the dirt. But it seems as if the eleventh Bundesliga season after promotion would be SC DHfK Leipzig’s last for the time being.
And otherwise? Champion Füchse Berlin dismantled Göppingen at home with 42:29 (17:17). In Berlin, rumors are growing about a well-known new signing: French national player Dika Mem is set to move from Barcelona to the Spree.
