Niclas Ekberg and THW Kiel took bronze in German Cologne after rarely seen drama. The match went to penalties when Hungarian Veszprem equalized to 34-34 on just one penalty throw in the very last second of the match.
The first penalty shooter for Kiel was Niclas Ekberg who made no mistakes. Veszprem missed his first two free throws and when Niklas Landin Jacobsen also saved the fourth, it was clear that Ekberg and Kiel won the bronze.
The Hungarians had a comfortable four-goal lead for a long time and after 45 minutes played, it was 28-24 on the board – then Kiel woke up. Five minutes later, Kiel had equalized to 30-30 and via a penalty save by Danish star goalkeeper Niklas Landin Jacobsen, they also took the lead 32-31.
With one minute and fourteen seconds left, Veszprem thought they had taken the lead with 34-33 when Nilsson was on the hook after a messy situation. However, the referee was unimpressed, and booked him for diving.
Ekberg scored three goals in the match but was outscored by the plan’s second Swede Andreas Nilsson on six goals. Veszprem’s Egyptian Omar Yahia scored the most goals with eight hits.