Like in 2011, the final of the IHF Super Globe is the fixture THW Kiel vs. Atletico Madrid. After Madrid won their thrilling semi against Al-Sadd (QAT) 33:32 before, defending champions Kiel had less work to beat Zamalek (EGY) 34:24 in their semi. The final of the 2012 edition of the IHF Super Globe of the only two teams with a clear sweep after four matches will start on Saturday at 17:00 hrs local time, before (15:00 hrs local time) Al-Sadd and Zamalek will fight for the bronze medal.

In 2011 Kiel had won the IHF Super globe final 28:25 in Doha, in May both teams faced again for another trophy, with Kiel winning the EHF Champions League final in Cologne 26:21. For Kiel it is the second straight time to be finalist in their second participation, Atletico play their third consecutive final since 2010 in Doha and their fourth straight in total.

 

Semifinal 2: THW Kiel (GER) – Zamalek (EGY) 34:24 (16:12)

The first 15 minutes were on an absolute equal level, with Kiel leading by 7:6. Zamalek played concentrated in defence and were pushed by hundreds of Egyptian spectators in the Al-Gharaffa arena. But led by Momir Ilic and Gudjon Valur Sigurdsson Kiel took the upper hand and took a deserved four goal margin into the halftime break.

Despite an emotional speech of coach Tarek Lofti in the corridors, his players had to acknowledge that THW have another quality in their squad concerning individual skills and defence structure. When Filip Jicha hit the net for 21:13, the winner was already known after only 39 minutes. At the score of 25:15 – after a double strike of Patrick Wienczek – the result was double-figured for the first time. In the end Wienczek was THW top scorer with six goals, in the overall ranking Zamalek’s Mohamed Mamdouah was ahead with seven goals.

Statements after the match:

Alfred Gislason, coach Kiel: Of course we are very satisfied to reach the final, which was our aim from the start of the competition. It was a quite good match from our side. In the first half we had problems in attack against the strong Zamalek goalkeeper, in the second half we played more concentrated in defence and attack and caused less errors. The final will be a great match, as usual, when Kiel and Madrid face. We look forward to this final and hope to repeat our 2011 title.

Christian Zeitz, player Kiel: We started weak and caused too many technical mistakes in the first half. We improved after the break and finally got a big result.

Tarek Lofti, coach Zamalek: We played a good match, but when we had recognized that we have no chance we kept in mind that we have another decisive match tomorrow. The most important thing was to avoid tiredness and injuries. Now we fight for a good result against Al-Sadd.

Mohamed Ahmed, player Zamalek: When we felt that we had lost, we saved the powers of our key players. You have to take in consideration that we played against the defending IHF Super Globe and European champions. Knowing this, we showed a good performance before the break.