Challenge from SCM coach Wiegert after a sensational year

After an almost perfect 2025, coach Bennet Wiegert of Champions League winners SC Magdeburg has issued a challenge to the competition. The 43-year-old is "looking forward to 2025 with a good feeling. Nevertheless, we will try to develop again in 2026 and take the next step," Wiegert told the German Press Agency, "Of course, there is always room for improvement, even with myself."

However, he added that his team had impressed almost across the board with their performance and fully compensated for the mixed first half of the 2024/2025 season: "When I look back on the year, I sometimes have to pinch myself and ask myself whether there is still room for improvement. What we've achieved this year is sensational."

Crowning in the Champions League

The coach is still saddened by narrowly missing out on the German handball championship, one point behind Füchse Berlin. The former professional was nevertheless able to take something positive from the second place: "But after this season, with all its challenges, to make it so exciting again, probably nobody thought we would."

One week after finishing second in the Bundesliga, the Champions League title was followed by a certain revenge against Berlin with an "insane performance by the team", which Wiegert said "crowned" the season. And at the same time ushered in further development.

Find focus again quickly after the European Championship

With just two points lost in all competitions in the second half of the year, Magdeburg has dominated both nationally and internationally. Nevertheless, the coach remains cautious: "Nothing is decided yet. You can always drop points somewhere in the Bundesliga, and the same applies to the Champions League. I don't need to tell anyone that anything is possible in the Cup Final4."

In view of the upcoming European Championships in Denmark, Sweden and Norway, Wiegert hopes that his players' loss of substance will be limited when the home game against the current "favorite killer" TBV Lemgo Lippe (8 p.m./Dyn) continues on February 11: "We have to make sure that we quickly regain our focus after the European Championships and continue to do our work. We'll see about the rest."