Germany loses the top game against France and is now under greater pressure at the home European Championship. The national coach then asked himself whether he should have made more changes.
The German national handball team sniffed out the surprise until the final phase. The DHB selection led 27:26 in the 49th minute of the European Championship preliminary round game against France, and the arena in Berlin shook. There was no trace of the atmosphere of a “friendly game”, as national coach Alfred Gíslason had put it after the game against North Macedonia.
Every time the French attacked there was a shrill concert of whistles, and every time the German attacks there was loud motivation. But it didn’t help. The final phase went to the Olympic champions, who ended up scoring seven goals, while Germany only scored three. The final score was 33:30 for France. When asked why, the German players had two answers after the final whistle: the quality of the French and their fitness.
Video | These mistakes cost Germany their victory against France
“You notice the international class of the French, which we can’t match. And that prevailed in the end,” explained Martin Hanne, but added: “Perhaps we were a little lacking in grit. Things were going quite well so far, until at that point.”
“That shows that they are one of the top nations”
Left winger Lukas Mertens also saw a crucial difference in freshness. “If you can give a Dika Mem, a Nikola Karabatić and a Nedim Remili a ten-minute break and then they come back with full power in crunch time, then that shows that they are among the top nations.” Germany, on the other hand, changed less. The German backcourt around Juri Knorr, Julian Köster and Kai Häfner got fewer breaks. Knorr was briefly replaced in the second half by Philipp Weber, Köster by Sebastian Heymann and Häfner by Christoph Steinert. But compared to the French, these were only short breaks.
So why didn’t Gíslason change more often? “I wanted to win the game,” the Icelander said dryly at the press conference. Philipp Weber and Kai Häfner on the plate at the same time would have been too much of a risk in defense, said the national coach. And with Sebastian Heymann the interaction doesn’t work well yet. “We hope that Basti comes in better and better, but with Julian (Köster, editor’s note) it’s a more fluid game. He (Köster) got his breaks and signaled that he’s fit again.”
Two or three minutes for Golla
But Gíslason was not entirely without self-criticism. However, it wasn’t about the backcourt for him, but about captain and pivot Johannes Golla: “I might have had to replace Golli because he played more or less all the time. But I didn’t do that. You’re always smarter in hindsight. I could have given him two or three minutes, but then the game might have been gone because he is an outstanding player.”
After all, the German team will no longer face a team with such a strong individual line-up in the main round. But opponents like Hungary, Iceland and Croatia also have it all. “We now have four finals,” explained Gíslason. The first is against Iceland on Thursday at 8:30 p.m.