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The German handball players are underdogs against hosts and top favorites Denmark. Here you can find all the news about the first main round game of the Handball World Cup.
8:33 p.m
Dahmke – “We are doing well in the tournament”
Not everything went perfectly in the preliminary round, and the German national players know that too. Nevertheless, the DHB team is in the main round with four points and has a good chance of taking one of the top two places in the group of six and moving into the quarter-finals.
Left winger Rune Dahmke is confident that this will succeed. “We realized that nothing was going to happen to us and that we had to work hard for things. Now we are well into the tournament and in good spirits,” said the 31-year-old veteran from the German record champions THW Kiel.
8:02 p.m
Gidsel wants to return to Germany with victory
Speaking of the Danes in the Bundesliga. Twelve players from Nikolaj Jacobsen’s 18-man squad play in the German top league. Including the reigning world handball player, Mathias Gidsel. “For us, this is one of the most important games at this World Cup. Almost everyone in our team plays in the Bundesliga. We want to return to Germany and say: We beat Germany,” announced the Füchse Berlin backcourt star confidently.
7:15 p.m
Machulla about the “Danish column”
The Danes’ squad includes seven players from SG Flensburg-Handewitt. Maik Machulla, SG coach from 2017 to 2023, has worked with Kevin Møller, Emil Jakobsen, Mads Mensah Larsen and Simon Pytlick and knows the Danish team very well.
In an interview with Sportschau, the future coach of the Rhein-Neckar Löwen assessed the chances of the DHB selection. For the young team, it was “the biggest challenge,” said Machulla, but playing against a big home crowd wasn’t a big problem. “We proved against France that we can ensure that the hall was quiet at some point,” said the 48-year-old.
However, the German team needs to be much more consistent in its evaluation of opportunities. “If we make simple mistakes, if we have bad throws and the Danish column starts running, then it will be brutally difficult,” said Machulla. “We have to play 6-on-6, we have to be able to defend man-to-man and not lose the running duel.”
6:40 p.m
German handball players have “a score to settle”
For the first time, the German team is an outsider in this tournament. The team has nothing to lose, and after the Olympic final there is still “a score to settle,” as Lukas Mertens said on Monday.
5:32 p.m
Meckes – “Going into the main round with a tailwind”
Sports director Ingo Meckes drew a positive interim conclusion after the preliminary round with three wins from three games. “We said before the World Cup that we wanted to go into the main round with an optimal number of points. Now we can check that. We have improved from game to game and are going into the second phase of the tournament with a tailwind,” said Meckes on Monday.
There are still a few question marks with the DHB team. More about it here:
4:54 p.m
Welcome!
The first real endurance test awaits the German handball players at the start of the main round of the World Cup. National coach Alfred Gislason’s team are clear outsiders against defending champions Denmark this Tuesday (8.30 p.m., live on Erste and on sportschau.de).
Last year, the DHB team lost both in the semi-finals at the home European Championships and in the Olympic final in Paris against the selection led by world handball player Mathias Gidsel. At the Summer Games the defeat was particularly clear at 26:39.
Juri Knorr’s team doesn’t want to attach too much importance to the World Cup cracker. After all, even if you lose, reaching the quarter-finals is still in your own hands. The other main round opponents are Italy on Thursday and Tunisia on Saturday.