Germany’s handball players have suffered a severe setback. The 22:22 draw against Austria makes the medal mission at the home European Championship more complicated.
After the bitter setback against Austria, Alfred Gislason walked across the floor with a dark expression on his face, captain Johannes Golla stared at the ground in consternation: Germany’s handball players have suffered a surprising setback on their mission to win a medal at their home European Championship.
It was only with a lot of effort that Germany saved a 22:22 (11:12), only the strong comeback on Saturday evening gave them courage for the rest of the tournament.
“I think you could see on every face that this hurts us incredibly,” said Golla on the “ARD” microphone: “That was incredibly bad of us and may be depriving us of our goals. We’re playing the worst game ever “We’re not going to achieve anything in the tournament, but we have the fans behind us.”
Gislason criticized his team’s weak offensive performance. “We lost this point in attack, the defense was good, and Andi was very good,” he said about the defense and the once again extremely strong goalkeeper Andreas Wolff. The high number of missed throws is “cruel”.
DHB team dependent on support
Only a show of strength in the final quarter of an hour and another great Wolff in goal secured the German team a potentially valuable point. The DHB selection was already behind 16:21 twelve minutes before the end before Germany, egged on by the 19,750 fans, caught up goal by goal and equalized in a nerve-wracking final phase.
The best German thrower was Juri Knorr with six goals. The Lanxess Arena fortress has had a scratch since Saturday evening: so far, Germany had won all tournament games in Cologne’s “Cathedral of Handball”.
For the medal games, the German team (3:3 points) now has to win the remaining games and is dependent on support: Germany will play the other games on Monday (8.30 p.m./ZDF and Dyn) against Hungary (4:2) and on Wednesday ( 8.30 p.m./ARD and Dyn) against Croatia (1:5). Only the top two in the group of six advance to the semi-finals. France is the leader with 6:0 points.
Germany, who initially competed without Knorr, who was weakened by a cold, showed their weakest performance of the tournament in the first half and appeared extremely nervous – in complete contrast to the still unbeaten Austrians. Goalkeeper Constantin Möstl played a very strong game against the cheeky outsider.
Instead of Knorr, Philipp Weber initially directed the German attack in the middle. In front of Joachim “Jo” Deckarm, who was sung a birthday serenade the day after his 70th anniversary, the Magdeburg native made two missed throws and a technical error within the first four minutes.
It wasn’t until the 9th minute that Timo Kastening scored Germany’s first lead at 3-2. But that didn’t bring any security. Wolff once again performed outstandingly in his 150th international match and, among other things, saved two seven-meter penalties in the first half. Austria played itself into a frenzy with aggressive defense in front of the extremely strong Möstl.
“That was so bad”
The Alpine handball players frenetically celebrated every successful action. The DHB men, on the other hand, seemed to keep hanging their heads after every missed throw. At the first two-goal deficit, Gislason shouted angrily during a timeout: “Damn it!” It didn’t help – the deficit grew to four goals at 6:10 (23rd) and 7:11 (24th).
Knorr didn’t initially help the DHB men to be more witty either. Rather, the German players repeatedly took difficult throws, some of which they missed miserably.
“What we showed in attack wasn’t actually possible, it was so bad,” complained world champion coach Heiner Brand during the break.
Even in the second half, the German team simply couldn’t get the offensive problems under control. Instead of taking the lead themselves, the Austrians pulled away again. Despite being 16:21 behind (48′), Germany fought its way back up to 21:22 – and at least secured the point.
Germany – Austria 22:22 (11:12) – Germany: Wolff (Kielce), Späth (Rhein-Neckar Löwen) – Knorr (Rhein-Neckar Löwen/6 goals), Kastening (Melsungen/4/1 seven meters), Köster ( Gummersbach/3), Golla (Flensburg/3), Mertens (Magdeburg/2), Häfner (Stuttgart/1), Dahmke (Kiel/1), Hanne (Hannover/1), Steinert (Erlangen/1), Heymann (Göppingen ), Kohlbacher (Rhein-Neckar Löwen), Lichtlein (Berlin), Fischer (Hannover), Weber (Magdeburg) – Austria: Möstl, Häusle – Bilyk (5), Frimmel (3/2), Hutecek (3), Zivkovic ( 3), Weber (3/1), Wagner (3), Mahr (1), Herburger (1).