Like Lothar Matthäus once did
DHB star reports on an annoying incident in the European Championship final
02/02/2026 – 01:50 amReading time: 2 minutes
In the European Championship final, the German handball players had to admit defeat to Denmark. Juri Knorr was not in top form and struggled with a special circumstance.
Nils Kögler reports from Herning
In the end, the dominators from Denmark were once again too strong: the German national handball team had to admit defeat to the Danish hosts in the final of the European Championship with a score of 24:37. In front of 15,000 spectators in the sold-out Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning, national coach Alfred Gíslason’s DHB selection kept up with the overwhelmingly powerful hosts for a long time, but in the end they were unable to prevent the selection led by world handball player Mathias Gidsel from scoring a hat-trick of titles.
After winning four World Cup titles in a row and winning the Olympics in 2024, Denmark can now call itself European champions again for the first time in 14 years and thus holds every major title that can be won at national team level.
The German team has been waiting for a win against the Danes for ten years, but can at least console themselves with the fact that they have moved significantly closer to the Danes compared to the 26:39 defeat in the 2024 Olympic final and the 30:40 at the World Cup last year.
“At least it’s little things and no longer these big differences and that’s cool,” said Knorr, analyzing the narrower defeat. “Right now, of course, it’s a shame,” he said nonetheless. “We are not left empty-handed, so we can be proud,” said Knorr. “Of course I have the feeling that the team is closer and we’re not getting any worse. Maybe we can stick with it in the next few years.”
Knorr himself was unable to maintain his top form in the final. Although he scored five goals, he needed a total of eleven throw attempts and repeatedly threw in bad passes. He had to deal with a particular annoyance: “It was little things that made the difference today, even stupid things,” he said. “My shoes tore in the first half and I have to put on shoes that I’ve never worn before,” he said, but then added with a shrug: “Those are things that still annoy you today, but that’s life.”
Knorr’s situation is reminiscent of that of Lothar Matthäus in the final of the 1990 World Cup. Matthäus’ shoes also broke during the final and he had to change into shoes that he had never worn before. He later said that this was one of the reasons why he preferred to give the decisive penalty to Andreas Brehme instead of taking it himself. The crucial difference to Knorr: Brehme converted the penalty, Germany defeated Argentina and became world champions. Knorr will have to wait at least until the home World Cup next year for this moment.
