BVB women's handballers miss out on German Championship final | OneFootball

It looked for a long time as though BVB would suffer a clear defeat. They were five goals behind at the break and seven goals behind on the 40-minute mark (22-15). But the exhilarating final phase belonged to BVB, who narrowed the deficit to three goals when they made it 24-21 in the 50th minute. The fans celebrated, Halle Wellinghofen shook. But that was as good as it got. The final consistency was missing. BVB never gave up and fought until the last second but could not compensate for the numerous absences in the way they had hoped. The personnel loss was too great, the alternative options too few.

The scenario: BVB won the first semi-final in Dortmund by a 37-30 scoreline a week ago, before losing the return fixture in Blomberg 27-25 this Wednesday. A third match was therefore necessary to determine which of the two teams would go through to the final. Not only the two semi-finals but also their two league matches in the regular season had been even encounters. BVB narrowly won the first meeting in Dortmund 22-21 in September, then suffered a relatively clear 29-25 loss in Blomberg.

Personnel matters: As has already been in the case in recent weeks, head coach Henk Groener was without a whole host of key performers. Lena Hausherr has been sidelined with a torn cruciate ligament for months. Goalkeeper Sarah Wachter has been suffering from a muscular tear, while pivot Emma Olsson has a knee injury. Captain Alicia Langer broke her finger in Metzingen. Maraike Kusian was absent due to tonsilitis. And shortly before the match got under way, goalkeeper Tess Lieder withdrew from contention. She had been substituted with an injury in the 49th minute in Blomberg on Wednesday after taking a hit to the face, and was replaced by goalkeeping coach Clara Woltering. Only the previously injured Lena Degenhardt returned.

The match & analysis: BVB were fully alert from the beginning and made intelligent use of space via Kelly Vollebregt out wide, but quickly fell behind nonetheless. Blomberg found themselves 5-3 up after seven minutes. By the 10-minute mark, the score stood at 5-5 following a spectacular Lois Abbingh goal from the back of the court.

Both teams did not give each other an inch from the start and contested an intense match on equal footing. The fact that BVB could not manage to take the lead was in part down to the strong HSG goalie Melanie Veith and HSG's aggressive defending, which increasingly caused BVB problems. Neither team had managed to pull away decisively by the 15th minute. But the picture changed after almost 20 minutes, with Spaniard Pena upping the score to 11-7 via a seven-metre throw.

Blomberg pulled away in a very short space of time, while BVB could not pick out any gaps in Blomberg's defence after the first time-out and completely lost their way. This was compounded by several passing errors that Blomberg exploited perfectly via Alexia Hauf. After Nieke Kühne's second goal, it was already 14-8 to Blomberg in the 25th minute. The deficit stood at five goals at the break, with the score 16-11.

BVB were caught napping at the start of the second half, quickly conceded two goals and were 18-11 behind early on (33). When Kelly Vollebregt had to leave the court for two minutes and BVB were without a keeper, Alexia Hauf increased the deficit to 19-12. The Black & Yellows initially could not narrow the gap, even though Deborah Lassource and Carmen Campos defended offensively and disrupted Nieke Kühne's space. Kelly Vollebregt then made it 23-18 in the 45th minute.

There was a glimmer of hope when Deborah Lassource scored to make it 24-20 in the 48th minute. When Lisa Antl made it 24-21 shortly afterwards, BVB were back within striking distance. But Blomberg recovered from their slump. The game was over by the time Nieke Kühne made it 30-24 at the latest (58). BVB had run out of steam and lost the belief they could win. By the time Lisa Antl scored to make it 32-26, the dream of reaching the final was finally over.

Lisa Antl: “We did not put into practice what we set out to do. Like in Blomberg on Wednesday. We have an extremely small squad, Blomberg capitalised on that and performed superbly.”

Henk Groener: “32 goals is far too many to concede. We did not embrace the challenges in defence, HSG were better in that regard. When we were then within three goals in the 50th minute, we made two or three simple mistakes. After that, the belief was gone.”

Andreas Kuno: “We lost the match in the first half. We allowed Kühne, Quist and Hauf to get into their flow. In the end, we were then simply lacking consistency.”

Outlook: The third-place play-off will take place on Saturday 24 May. The opponents will not be determined until HB Ludwigsburg and Thüringer HC go head-to-head at 16:00 CEST on Sunday. In the event Ludwigsburg lose the third semi-final, then the match would be played in Ludwigsburg. In the event Thüringer HC lose and go up against BVB in the battle for third place, BVB would have home advantage.