Goal record brings Flensburg to the Winamax EHF Finals

EHF / Björn Pazen

05 May 2026, 21:00

Defending champions SG Flensburg-Handewitt booked their ticket for the Winamax EHF Finals 2026 as the first team. After a draw against their German rivals TSV Hannover-Burgdorf on home ground last week, the team of Aleš Pajović won the goal fest in Hanover in the second leg 43:35. No other team has ever scored more goals in a single quarter-final match or on aggregate in any quarter-final in the EHF European League Men.

Now, Flensburg aim to become the first team with three consecutive trophies in this competition. After a weak start, goalkeeper Kevin Møller became the key for Flensburg.

The draw for the Winamax EHF Finals will be conducted on Friday 8 May, 11:00 CEST (live on EHFTV). Later in the evening Flensburg were joined by Kiel, Melsungen and Montpellier completing the same setup for the final tournament like a year ago.

QUARTER-FINALS, SECOND LEG

Recken – TSV Hannover-Burgdorf (GER) vs SG Flensburg-Handewitt (GER) 35:43 (20:22)

Top scorers: Leif Tessier (Recken – TSV Hannover-Burgdorf) 10/12, Lasse Møller (SG Flensburg-Handewitt) 10/12
First leg result: 39:39, Flensburg won 82:74 on aggregate

The fans saw pure high-speed and almost no defence in the first half; after only seven minutes the score was 7:5, and by the break they had witnessed 42 goals.
After an early red card for Flensburg wing Domen Novak (foul against August Pedersen), Recken pulled ahead to a three-goal advantage on four occasions.
The saves of Benjamin Buric and Kevin Møller turned the match around, as Flensburg produced a 5:1 run for their 22:20 half-time lead – and added another 3:0 right after the break.
Backed by this clear advantage and Møller’s saves, the defending champions had full control until the end; the ticket to Hamburg was effectively secured when Lasse Møller scored his tenth goal for 38:31 with ten minutes left.
For Hannover-Burgdorf, the international journey ended just as it did in their first ever quarter-final participation in the EHF Cup 2018/19 – they were eliminated by a German team. Back then it were Füchse Berlin; now it were Flensburg.

Flensburg show an incredible attacking performance

The 39:39 in the reverse fixture last week in Flensburg had already been the all-time high-scoring match in any European League Men quarter-final since the competition’s introduction in the 2020/21 season. Flensburg are the team with the highest number of goals in the EHF European League this season, netting 502 times in 14 matches, an average of 35.85. The 41:34 was their 500th goal of the season in this competition. Netting 43 times, they broke their own quarter-final goal record for a single team after winning 41:30 at Sävehof in the 2023/24 season.

On their way to the Winamax EHF Finals 2026 they lost only three of 14 matches – all in the main round against THW Kiel (twice) and Montpellier. In the knock-out stage, they drew twice at home, against Danish side SAH – Aarhus in the play-offs and against Hanover in the quarter-final, but won both respective away matches. In 2024, Flensburg had beaten Füchse Berlin in the final; last year, they defeated Montpellier to become the first team in the competition to defend the title.

Congratulations to Flensburg and good luck for the rest of the Bundesliga season and for the Final4 in Hamburg. We played very well in the first half, particularly in attack. In the final minutes of the first half, we went on a 1-5 run which knocked us off our stride a bit, as did the opening minutes of the second half. We tried a lot of things after that, but it wasn’t enough.

Juan Carlos Pastor, head coach of Recken - TSV Hannover-Burgdorf

I’m delighted – we’re off to Hamburg. Hannover were really up for it and it wasn’t easy at all. In the first half, we were a bit lucky to score five goals in the last five minutes, which really helped us. In the second half, Hannover made a lot of mistakes early on and we capitalised on that. There were plenty of goals again, just like in the first leg.“

Ales Pajovic, head coach of SG Flensburg-Handewitt