After the surprising 27:30 defeat against Serbia in the second game of the European Handball Championship, playmaker Juri Knorr openly criticized his playing time. The 25-year-old struggled with several of the coach’s decisions – and indicated a negative mood in the team.
Five goals, two assists and a lot of speed. Middleman Juri Knorr was in good form against Serbia and still had to play most of the second half from the bench. “Of course it boils inside you when you sit on the bench and can’t help.”the 25-year-old struggled to find the right words on the ARD microphone after the defeat.
“You can only do it if everyone has the trust”
Nevertheless, it is clear that the national player does not seem to be satisfied with the personnel decisions: “We won’t be able to do it alone. We won’t be able to do it if people play for 60 minutes. We’ll only do it if everyone is there, everyone has the trust and that comes from us in the team.”
Whether Knorr meant the trust of Gislason or the trust between each other – or both – he left it open. But he indicated a negative mood in the team. “Everyone has to be aware that we can’t win this with such negativity, but only with positivity. We have good phases, then we’re afraid again.” After a 17:13 half-time lead, the German team collapsed in the second half, only scored ten times and suffered their first defeat of the 2026 European Handball Championship.
Knorr played 28:29 minutes on Saturday evening, hitting five of his eight shots during this time and providing two assists (with two turnovers). Renars Uscins played 31:51 minutes, hit six of twelve shots with two turnovers. Miro Schluroff was allowed 30:30 minutes (6/7, one ball loss) and Julian Köster even 48:23 minutes (2/5, two assists, two ball losses), but the latter also plays in defense.
Knorr was also the victim of a timeout mishap: national coach Gislason pressed the timeout button in the second when Knorr’s supposed goal made it 26:26.
Gislason with the time out most unfortunate time
“I don’t know if I should answer that”the middle man began his answer to the question of what would come to mind when he saw this scene: “I think every player wants to be on the table and I’ll always give it my all. Of course I want to help and I felt like I could help well. I don’t fully understand it.”
In the first game against Austria, the national player had an unusually short playing time (21:53 minutes), but after the victory he was only motivated to push himself further. One thing is clear: Knorr will also come into play in the last group game when it comes to progress in the European Championships against Spain (January 19th, 8:30 p.m. on sportschau.de).
