In the second World Cup preliminary round game, the DHB selection wins a thriller against Switzerland. One player shows an outstanding performance, others disappoint. The individual criticism.
On Friday evening, the German national handball team experienced a thriller against the neighboring country. After the DHB team was able to clearly defeat Switzerland twice at the home European Championships and in the European Championship qualification last year, they had a lot of trouble with the “Confederates” in the second preliminary round game of the World Cup.
In the end, the ticket for the main round was secured early with a 31:29 win, but as in the first game against Poland, Alfred Gislason’s team was not convincing.
As announced, playmaker Juri Knorr was in the squad after his knee injury from the Poland game. The 24-year-old from Bundesliga club Rhein-Neckar Löwen initially remained on the bench. “He trained a bit, moved around a bit. I think he’s fully operational,” said Gislason on ZDF before kick-off.
Luca Witzke from Leipzig took over the direction of the German game for Knorr, but it got off to an extremely slow start. Technical errors and many missed throws characterized the nervous starting phase in which the DHB team failed to find its rhythm in front of more than 7,000 spectators in Herning, Denmark.
At 2:5 (11th minute), Gislason took an early timeout and then sent Knorr onto the floor. “We scored two goals in ten minutes. Attack – that’s the problem,” complained the national coach.
However, it took until the 20th minute before Germany equalized at 7:7. Eight minutes before the break, the German team took their first lead at 9:8, but could not extend it until the end of the first half. This was mainly due to the large gaps in the defense, which the Swiss repeatedly exploited to score easy goals.
Even with the restart, the DHB selection’s game didn’t get any better. On the contrary: the narrow lead quickly turned into a two-goal deficit. Only goalkeeper Wolff could be relied on. Ten minutes before the end everything was open at 25:25. In the dramatic final phase, the favorite held his nerve and narrowly made it to the finish. You can see which player played the biggest role in the victory with an outstanding performance and which top performers disappointed in the individual review above or here.