Flensburg-Handewitt beat Erlangen 38:33 in the Bundesliga on Saturday evening. The hosts held their nerve in front of their own end, closing out a match that never looked entirely settled until the final whistle. It was a result that kept them sitting third in the table, two wins from two.
The scoreline suggests a contest that ebbed and flowed rather than one side pulling away early. Erlangen stayed competitive for long stretches, but Flensburg-Handewitt's experience showed in the closing stages. To be fair, the visitors did not travel to make up the numbers — they found the net enough times to keep things interesting.
We had called for the home side to win, with 52 per cent confidence, and that prediction held up. Flensburg-Handewitt's consistency in recent games — four wins and one draw from their last five — told against Erlangen's more mixed form. The away side had only managed one point from two matches before this encounter.
By then, Flensburg-Handewitt sat third with four points from two games, while Erlangen remained in thirteenth place with just one point. The gap between them in the table opened further, though neither side had yet established anything definitive. The hosts held their nerve when it mattered most.
Recent results showed the pattern clearly enough. Flensburg-Handewitt had beaten Bergischer 34:29 and drawn with Eisenach 33:31 in their two Bundesliga outings. Erlangen's draw against Hannover-Burgdorf 28:28 had offered a glimmer, but the loss to Goppingen 30:32 followed it closely.
The result leaves Flensburg-Handewitt with momentum and Erlangen needing to find something sooner rather than later. Three points would have been ideal for the home side, but a win with room for improvement is not a bad start to the campaign. The table will shift as the season progresses, but for now the positions stand as they are.