Thanks to their high speed and fire power, Flensburg had already paved the way to the final with the 18:11 advantage at the break. Their final opponents will be decided between Füchse Berlin and Rhein-Neckar Löwen later Saturday. It will be the fifth all-German final since the EHF European League and its predecessor EHF Cup are decided by a finals tournament.
Best Flensburg scorers were Emil Jakobsen (11), Johan Hansen (nine) and Simon Pytlick (six), who combined for 26 of 38 goals.
Dinamo missed the chance to make history as first Romanian men’s team in a final of the second-tier EHF club competition. The team was hanpered by the absence of injured mastermind Luka Cindric.
SEMI-FINAL:
SG Flensburg-Handewitt (GER) vs Dinamo Bucuresti (ROU) 38:32 (18:11)
- Dinamo managed to stand the pressure until minute 14 and the score of 9:7 in favour of Flensburg, then the Romanian champions were overran by SG’s fast breaks. Ten of Flensburg’s 16 goals were scored by the wings and fast-break specialists Emil Jakobsen (6) and Johan Hansen (4)
- Kevin Møller clearly won the goalkeeper duel before the break against Vladimir Cupara with seven saves against three
- Bucuresti’s defence was too weak and too slow to stop the Flensburg express, and the injury of Luka Cindric limited their options in attack clearly, as also Ali Zein was not 100 percent fit
- after the break, Flensburg kept their advantage constantly between five and seven goals, though Dinamo improved in attack and showed morale until the end, they could never endanger the victors
- with his 11 goals, Emil Jakobsen is the fifth player with double-digit number of goals in the history of the EHF Finals, just below Magdeburg’s Omar Ingi Magnusson, who scored 12 times in 2021
- Dinamo’s Ukrainian Andrii Akimenko consolidated his number 1 position in the top scorer list of the European League with seven goals against Flensburg. In total, the wing is on 90 goals
Flensburg’s flawless performance provides a deserved spot in the final
SG Flensburg-Handewitt aim for the fifth different European trophy and their sixth in total on Sunday. The club won the City Cup in 1999, the Cup winners Cup in 2001 and 2012, the EHF Cup in 1997 and the EHF Champions League in 2014 – and after their 13th victory in their 15th EHF European League match of the season, they hope for more silver ware in their first international final since 2014. Against Dinamo, Flensburg were better in almost all departments, except from the right back position, where Stanislav Kasparek showed an outstanding performance for Bucuresti.
Dinamo’s physical strong defence was not able to close the gaps in Flensburg’s position attack, and they were too slow in their reverse gear, when SG started their series of counter-attacks. One player was cheered most by the hundreds of Flensburg fans: Dutch right back Kay Smits, who had been ruled out by myocarditis since December. Surprisingly, he was in the starting line-up and even scored his first goal since almost six months.
It was obvious that our defence made it easier to control the game. We played quite clever, in the end, we have to play effectively longer tomorrow. Our wings were very efficient, it made it easier to handle the attack. Dinamo showed their individual quality after the break in attack, with (Luka) Cindric we would have been in much bigger trouble
It was an amazing match of Flensburg, and it was an amazing match for handball, for our sport. In the first half we made some mistakes and I was really angry at half-time. We had focused on two, three situations in preparation in the whole week, but we failed, exactly in those. But we fought until the end, that makes me proud, we are happy to be here.
