The DHB team’s semi-final dreams suffered a setback against Austria. The offense was primarily to blame. But hope remains.
Murmurs every minute, repeated long-drawn out “Oooohs” and every now and then a loud “That’s not possible!”: These were expressions of disappointment and bewilderment that echoed through the Lanxess Arena in Cologne on Saturday evening. The shock of the German national handball team’s performance in the second main round game against Austria was omnipresent in the “Handball Temple”, which was once again sold out with 19,750 spectators.
The audience, who had been trying for a good atmosphere for a long time, was ready to celebrate another handball game with the German team after the thriller victory against Iceland in the first main round game. Instead, the 22:22 draw resulted in one setback after another. The German offensive, which took place on a pitch-black day, was responsible for this. Instead of cheering for the next winter fairy tale, the Cologne audience could soon be mourning their elimination from the home European Championships.
“Then some shit will come out of it.”
The German team certainly didn’t lack scoring opportunities against Austria. The DHB stars threw at the opposing goal a total of 45 times, including numerous well-played free throws. But in the end there was still a meager return of 22 goals and a dismal success rate of 49 percent.
As if the bare facts weren’t meaningful enough, a visibly dismayed Kai Häfner tried to be very clear after the game about the weak offensive performance. You created a lot of chances, but you just couldn’t get the ball into the goal, according to his analysis. Free throws were also left lying “one after the other”. “Then all in all some shit will come out of it,” is Häfner’s clear verdict. Meanwhile, goalkeeper Andreas Wolff almost tried to distance himself from the attacking performance: “I can’t say much about the attack, it’s not my thing. I’m really happy about it,” he said.
Goalkeeper drives Germans to despair
Coach Alfred Gíslason didn’t want to sugarcoat anything either. Due to the unused opportunities, the team “kept digging itself in and getting stuck”. His conclusion: “It was entirely our own fault for our misfortune in attack.”
The Austrian keeper Constantin Möstl, who was in a great mood, was certainly partly to blame. The 23-year-old played himself into a “little frenzy” against the Germans, as Julian Köster put it. With 17 out of 36 balls and a rate of 47 percent, almost every second attempt on goal failed. Gíslason described the keeper as having delivered a “world-class performance without end” and Austrian national coach Aleš Pajovič described it as “the best game he has ever played”.
Defense and Wolff save a lucky point
But none of the German players and those in charge wanted to accept that as an excuse. “It is clear that we want to finish better than today, even against strong goalkeeping performances,” said DHB sports director Axel Kromer. “The goalkeeper was fantastic, but we just weren’t good enough,” Gíslason continued.
What was particularly annoying was that the wing players, who had been so infrequent in the last few games, were much better integrated against Austria, but were mainly involved in the poor exploitation of chances. Right winger Timo Kastening only converted four of his eight throws and also missed a seven-meter penalty. Left winger Lukas Mertens also only scored twice in five attempts.
Video | The DHB game against Austria was so exciting