The foxes Berlin have lost their theoretical chance for second place in the handball Bundesliga. But third place is safe because Flensburg lost. On Wednesday evening, on the penultimate matchday, the Berliners did not get past a 23:23 (12:13) after a weak offensive performance at HBW Balingen-Weilstetten, who were threatened with relegation. Best Berlin throwers were Jacob Holm with six and Hans Lindberg with five goals.
“It was a very competitive game. Balingen tried to be physically present and to do everything to get the points,” analyzed Füchse trainer Jaron Siewert afterwards. “We had enough chances to shape the game for ourselves, in the end it’s the draw that counts and that we finished third on our own.”
The foxes’ ankle injury suffered by Fabian Wiede against Minden on Sunday turned out to be not so serious. The national player was in Balingen in the starting lineup. Although the Berliners tried to set the pace from the start, they also found it very difficult against very committed hosts.
The guests, who have been so offensively strong recently, made too many lack of concentration and too many ball losses, especially in attack. So the Berliners usually ran behind a narrow deficit. After a good 19 minutes, it increased to two goals for the first time (8:10). The foxes were unlucky with four aluminum hits in the first half.
