The German team holds up well against top favorites Denmark for a long time. But in the end the difference in performance within the team in the final is too big.
Nils Kögler reports from Herning
Germany’s handball players did not fulfill their dream of reaching the final. Despite a rousing team performance, Olympic champions and world champions Denmark were too strong at 27:34 (16:18) on Sunday evening.
“I’m proud of the performance, proud of the whole tournament,” said captain Johannes Golla on ZDF. “We didn’t give up. We stayed in the game until the 45th or 50th minute.” The DHB team “said goodbye to the tournament with a reasonable performance. Congratulations to Denmark. We definitely want to come back.”
Although the defeat hurt in a long-even and highly intense final, with the silver medal the German team celebrated its greatest success at a European Championship since winning the title in 2016.
Team manager Benjamin Chatton is also already looking forward to the next final against Denmark: “Today we are sad, but from tomorrow we will resolve: If we are allowed to play another final against the Danes, then we want to win it,” he said at Dyn.
In front of 15,000 spectators in Herning, Denmark, goalkeeper Andreas Wolff and his teammates kept the game balanced for a long time. The goalkeeper was once again the best German player with his saves and prevented the Danes from pulling away earlier. You can read what grade he received in the t-online individual review and how his teammates performed here or in the photo show above.
But in the second half the hosts turned things around with world handball player Mathias Gidsel. Especially since the decimated German defense weakened itself early on after the short-term loss of Justus Fischer. Defensive star Tom Kiesler was shown a red card after just 14 minutes after a tough start against Gidsel, and Jannik Kohlbacher was also sent off with a red card after 57 minutes for dangerous play.
