Lasse Andersson to bid farewell to Berlin on the biggest stage

“Of course, it will be something special and I have in mind that it will be my farewell match, but I try to keep everything as normal and regular as possible,” says Andersson.

He arrived at Berlin in 2020, after a four-year stint at Barça — and since then has become an EHF European League winner, German champion, German cup winner, German Supercup winner, IHF Super Globe winner and reached the final of the Machineseeker EHF Champions League last year, which they lost against SC Magdeburg.

“We had played a great season, but finally Magdeburg were better than us. But we were happy and proud to come that far.  Now we want to turn it around,” Andersson admits, looking ahead to the semi-final on Saturday, which pairs the same German clubs in the rematch of the 2025 final.

“I really like to face Magdeburg, it is always fun and the fans always see tight matches. Maybe this semi is a good moment to take revenge for 2025. Definitely, this match will be full of energy.”

In the German Bundesliga, SCM have beaten Füchse twice this season, but for Andersson, those results have no impact: “Last year, we had beaten them once and tied once in the league, then they beat us in the final. You cannot compare a league match to a Champions League semi-final. The rest is past.”

In the 2025/26 season, Berlin had their best result in the group phase, making it straight to the quarter-finals as group winners ahead of Aalborg Håndbold.

In the last knockout round ahead of the TruckScout24 EHF FINAL4 2026, Berlin had two intense battles against One Veszprém HC. After a 34:35 defeat in Hungary, Füchse needed a penalty shoot-out to finally win 35:33 in the second leg and qualify for Cologne for the third time in the club’s history — after 2012, when they lost to eventual winners THW Kiel in the semi-final, and 2025.

“Overall, our Champions League season was outstanding, with a strong group phase and then those close duels in the quarter-finals. After a match like this, the joy to make it to Cologne again was huge. We were really happy that we did it again,” says Andersson, who currently is Berlin’s second-best scorer in the Machineseeker EHF Champions League 2025/26 with 83 goals, only topped by the competition's overall top scorer, his country-fellow Mathias Gidsel (144), who is 41 goals ahead of Barça’s Aleix Gómez.

And how many goals will Andersson and Gidsel score combined in Cologne this year?

“We really don’t care about that. Our goal is to win both matches, regardless of who scores the goals. If Mathias and I score only three goals and we win the trophy, then we are extremely happy.”

Some of Andersson’s most recent memories are from his latest matches in the LANXESS arena: on 17 May, he was part of the Danish team that won a test game against Germany (31:29) in the rematch of the Men’s EHF EURO 2026 final. But, more important for the striker was the final tournament of the German cup in April, when Andersson steered Füchse Berlin to the winners’ podium as MVP of the event, netting 10 goals in the final against Bergischer HC (42:33).

Now 20,000 fans in the “cathedral of handball” will complete the stage for his farewell to Berlin: “It is great to finish with an event like this, but only a victorious end really means fun, and this will be a huge task,” concludes the left back.

Photos © Axel Heimken / kolektiff (main), Tomasz Fąfara and Sylvia Goeres (feature in-text)