The first step towards the European Championships has been taken, but Germany’s handball players still have to work on the necessary form before their big highlight of the year.
Almost six weeks before the start of the home World Cup, national coach Markus Gaugisch’s team won confidently against North Macedonia in Gummersbach with 34:18 (14:8), but the DHB women lacked fine-tuning, especially in the first half.
“We can be very happy with the game, even if we had difficulty getting into our attacking game at the beginning,” said Viola Leuchter, the best German thrower alongside Alexia Hauf with five goals. Mareike Thomaier was more critical: “There’s still something going on in terms of play. There were still a lot of mistakes, especially in the tempo game,” said the backcourt player at DF1.
The compulsory task of qualifying for the 2026 European Championship, which also represents an important stage in the preparation for the World Cup, was solved by the selection of the German Handball Association (DHB) primarily through the strong goalkeeper Katharina Filter.
Much more accurate in the second round
Captain Antje Döll had described the mood in the team in advance as “very, very hot”, but the DHB selection initially lacked the hunger for goals. Although the defense was attentive from the start, there was a significant lack of penetration on the other side of the pitch. It took Gaugisch’s team six minutes to take a 2-1 lead against the outsiders, but even after that the ball didn’t really want to find its way into the goal.
The German women failed either in front of the empty goal, on the last pass or even on the crossbar, but they were able to rely on filters. It wasn’t until the end of the first half that the team developed some flow.
After the restart, the German players showed themselves to be more concentrated and much more accurate, and they were able to make quick advances again and again. The 2,122 spectators in Gummersbach thanked them with lots of cheers. The next chance to work on form for the World Cup will be on Sunday (1:45 p.m.) in Belgium. The tournament begins for Germany on November 26th against Iceland in Stuttgart.