Dream of the knockout round is alive
German handball players win against Switzerland
12/05/2024Reading time: 2 minutes
Before two difficult duels, the DHB women needed a good start to the main round. In the end there was a clear win against Switzerland.
With a successful start to the European Championship main round, Germany’s handball players have gained new self-confidence for the upcoming tough duels with Olympic third place Denmark and Olympic champion Norway. Thanks to an improvement after the break, national coach Markus Gaugisch’s team achieved an easy 36:27 (18:14) win against Switzerland at the start of the second phase of the tournament.
In front of 2,182 spectators in Vienna, Alexia Hauf was the best thrower for the DHB selection with six goals, which now has 2:2 points in the account after the 22:29 defeat in the preliminary round against the Netherlands. In addition to Denmark and Norway, Germany will also face Slovenia at the end of the main round.
As in the entire preliminary round, the sick backcourt player Viola Leuchter was missing from the duel with Switzerland. Her role was once again taken over by Nina Engel, who was the positive surprise in the DHB team during the tournament so far with her carefree style of play. This time the 21-year-old barely lit up.
The German team started with concentration, although not without mistakes. The defense was largely stable and the chances in attack were initially better exploited than in previous games. After 13 minutes, Germany led by four goals for the first time at 8:4.
What followed was the almost obligatory hangup. Within six minutes the cushion was lost. At 10:10, Gaugisch reacted with a timeout to get his charges back on track. He also brought in fresh staff.
The measure had an effect. Within two and a half minutes, the DHB selection pulled away again with a 4-0 run. A lot went wrong as a result, especially in the attack. But since the Swiss also sinned in the end, the four-goal lead lasted until the break.
After the change, the favored German team moved ahead by eight goals within five minutes. With the clear lead behind them, the DHB women now played a little more freely without shining. Gaugisch took advantage of the opportunity and switched around in order to distribute the load evenly before the difficult games against Denmark and Norway.
In the middle of the second half, the sloppiness in the end took hold again. However, this had no impact on the outcome of the game. The Swiss women lacked the class for that. In addition, goalkeeper Sarah Wachter was in great shape and made several saves to ensure that things didn’t get tight again despite a few mistakes made by her teammates.