The German hockey men reported back impressively at the European Championships in Mönchengladbach. Two days after the surprising false start in the 3-3 win against Wales, the world champion defeated the defending champion from the Netherlands 3-0 (3-0) on Monday (08/21/2023).
Justus Weigand (2nd minute), Niklas Wellen (5th) and Malte Hellwig (28th) met in front of almost 10,000 spectators in the sold-out hockey park in Mönchengladbach for the selection of the German Hockey Association (DHB), which surprisingly did not start at the start 3:3 against outsiders Wales.
Henning: “Goosebumps because of ‘Oh, how beautiful that is!’
“We felt we had to do something good”said top striker Niklas Wellen on the Sportschau microphone in relation to the opening draw, “We had such a blatant urge to show that we’re one of the favorites in the tournament.” “We’re well into the tournament now”said national coach André Henning, “The spark jumped over today. That the grandstand ‘Oh, how nice!’ sings, the boys had goosebumps and they work every day for that.”
Dream start after 61 seconds
The team set course again for the first European Championship title since 2013 and direct Olympic qualification. “We want to let the spark fly”, asked national coach André Henning – and his team did him a favor from the start two days after the disappointing Wales game. Germany got off to a dream start in front of a frenetic audience.
It only took 61 seconds before Mannheim’s Weigand duped his man-marker and pushed the ball over the line to make it 1-0. Shortly thereafter, top striker Wellen found a Dutch foot with a sharp cross – and the ball found its way into the goal for the second time after less than five minutes. Because Germany took their foot off the gas a bit after the lightning start, the world number one, who was actually in very good form recently, was also allowed to play a bit afterwards.
Guests keep running into counterattacks
To the annoyance of the numerous orange-clad fans from the hockey-mad Netherlands, nothing countable jumped out – on the contrary: the guests kept running into counterattacks from the now deep world champion – Hellwig used one of them shortly before the break for the third German goal.
In the second half, the DHB team took it easy, the Netherlands controlled the ball and opponents, but nothing changed in the offensive harmlessness of “Oranje”. Germany easily brought the victory home.