Handballers win first play-off game against Metzingen | OneFootball

The scenario: Borussia had three wins from four games before the international break and went into the quarter-final series against Metzingen with a positive feeling. TuS lost their last four games before the internationals and used the break to focus on the play-offs. Borussia won both league clashes: 33-29 at home and 32-30 in Metzingen.

Personnel matters: Sarah Wachter was missing for BVB due to a hip injury sustained in the German national team's international match against Denmark. She joined Lena Hausherr (cruciate ligament rupture) on the absentee list, but apart from that all players were available for selection for coach Henk Groener.

The game: The first quarter of an hour of the game belonged to the visitors from Metzingen. With an incredibly high tempo in attack and strong defending in the circle, TuS were very efficient at countering Dortmund's attack. The scoreboard read 4-0 in favour of the visitors before Dana Bleckmann scored the first goal for the Black & Yellows after six-and-a-half minutes. Tess Lieder saved Borussia from falling further behind and initiated the home side's comeback with three saves in very quick succession. Little was still possible from the wing and the circle, but the backcourt now proved to be reliable. Lois Abbingh restored Metzingen's lead to 6-5. Borussia missed the chance to equalise, and Metzingen once again took the ball down the court for Naina Klein to add to her tally. Henk Groener called a timeout in response.

The Dutchman told his team to apply more pressure from all positions and not to stand still in front of their defenders. After the timeout, the visitors lost their high level of passing accuracy, which led to mistakes. Lena Degenhardt punished this with two goals before the break to make it 14-14 going into the interval.

Lara Egeling opened the second half with her first goal for Borussia. Carmen Campos' subsequent seven-metre penalty put the Black & Yellows ahead for the first time. In the second half, BVB had a wall in goal: Tess Lieder. The 31-year-old saved shot after shot and had already made ten saves after 40 minutes. Thanks to their goalkeeper's strong performance, Borussia led 21-17. Alicia Langer had already scored six times and was thus the key to the Black & Yellows' very good spell in offence. The jubilation in the Wellinghofen arena knew no bounds. Chants of "Tess Lieder" echoed from the stands on several occasions. In the middle of this phase, the Dutchwoman then scored her first goal of the game to make it 28-22.

The game had slipped away from TuS and their all-round performance had started to falter. From this point onwards, Metzingen were no longer able to play at the pace they had displayed in the first half. Borussia were more and more dominant as the game progressed and showed a lightness of touch which helped Henk Groener's team cruise to a 32-28 victory.

Alicia Langer: "We were too hectic at the start and made too many mistakes. We moved better in the second half and found solutions. That's why I'm happy that we were able to win the game today. Now we have to improve on the problems we had in the first half next Saturday. We want to make it through to the semi-finals."

Outlook: The second leg of the play-off quarter-final will take place in Metzingen next Saturday (26 April, 19:30 CEST). A win there will see Borussia advance to the semi-finals of the German Championship.