The teams had lost their semi-final in completely different ways, as SCM lost by two against Aalborg, 26:28, while THW were defeated by Barça 18:30.
Right from throw-off, it was obvious that THW Kiel had had a better night than their opponents. Taking the lead early on, they made the most of every opportunity they had to score. In fact, they netted 23 times in the first half alone — five more than they did during the entire semi-final against Barça on Saturday.
If the first part of the game was in black and white, the second was much more red and green. Magdeburg kept pushing and managed to come within three goals with three minutes to play, but were never able to reduce the gap to really threaten their opponents. Tomas Mrkva, with 15 saves, had an important role for Kiel, as he managed to keep his team on top in a tight last quarter of the game.
3/4 PLACEMENT MATCH
SC Magdeburg (GER) vs THW Kiel (GER) 28:32 (14:23)
- Kiel seemed to have recovered quite well from their defeat on Saturday, as they scored nine — half of their semi-final tally — within the first 10 minutes to take an early three-goal lead
- everything seemed to turn against Magdeburg in the first half, as Christian O’Sullivan took his second direct red card of the weekend, after being sent out twice last season
- thanks to Mrkva making wonders between the posts and Eric Johansson scoring six in the first half, Kiel were ahead by nine at the break (23:14)
- the time in the locker room seemed to do Magdeburg some good, as they came back within six in 10 minutes, with Mrkva preventing them coming closer by stopping a penalty throw
- SCM kept pushing throughout the second half, with Sergey Hernandez saving some important shots and Felix Claar taking things in hand offensively to reduce the gap to three goals in the 57th minute
- Mrkva was elemental for THW Kiel remaining on top in the second half, with his 15 saves at an efficiency rate of 35 per cent
Tomas Mrkva wins goalkeeper head-to-head
Some might say that goalkeeper is the most important position in handball, and in the TruckScout24 EHF FINAL4 2024 3/4 placement game, they were proven right. Not only was Mrkva key when THW Kiel took the momentum in the first half, but the Czech national player was even more important in the second half. He kept the “Zebras” boat afloat when the SCM waves came crashing, saving three penalties overall and a key shot from Oscar Bergendahl in the dying minutes of the game.
It was a dream scenario today, to end a long career with a win and to celebrate with the fans and the whole club and my family. It was a nice ending. As the coach said, it was a really long season and I need a couple of hours to realize my time in Kiel is coming to an end. I’m still not really coping with it completely. I’m proud, happy. To me, it meant a lot to show a different face for the last match of this team.
It was hard to focus as we were all really disappointed after the loss in the semi-final yesterday. We came here to win the final and it’s tough to find the motivation to play this game. It took us one half and then we started to play good. But we missed too many crucial shots — myself first of all, and it’s hard to come back when you miss these shots after being behind by nine.
