Endurance test against Switzerland, EM dress rehearsal against Olympic champion France: The German handball players have found top-class replacements after Serbia’s international match was canceled due to the corona.
The team of national coach Alfred Gislason will meet Switzerland on Friday (4:00 p.m. / ARD), in the last test match before the EM there will be a duel with tournament favorites France on Sunday (7:05 p.m. / Sport1).
“These two internationals against Switzerland and France are very valuable to us,” said Gislason: “We need the competition to develop our young team.”
After Serbia’s cancellation, the DHB found a replacement within 24 hours and benefited from short-term bottlenecks with the new opponents. “We have had challenging hours behind us. We are grateful to have neighbors like Switzerland and France,” said DHB CEO Mark Schober.
Switzerland had to cancel an EM preparatory tournament at home due to corona-related cancellations by Montenegro and Portugal, the French suddenly had no competitors after corona cases with their planned friendly opponent Egypt.
At the EM, where the German games are broadcast live by “ARD” and “ZDF”, the DHB selection will meet Belarus (January 14), Austria (January 16) and Poland (January 18) in the preliminary round in Bratislava ). The first two teams qualify for the main round, which also takes place in the Slovak capital.
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