The European Handball Championship in Slovakia and Hungary was a tournament with ups and downs for the German national team. The pure performance at the European Championship was disappointing with the three main round defeats in a row against Spain (23:29), Norway (23:28) and Sweden (21:25) and missing the semi-finals prematurely – considering the Corona-related Due to the exceptional situation of the DHB team, a different reading is appropriate.
Before the last game of the German team on Tuesday evening (from 6:00 p.m.) against Russia, it is clear that practically an entire handball squad with a positive corona test failed during the tournament. Most recently, Patrick Wiencek from THW Kiel and Simon Ernst from SC DHfK Leipzig joined the infected, who had to go into self-isolation.
In the last game of the tournament from a German point of view against the Russians, it is only a question for the men around national coach Alfred Gislason to confirm the fighting-appealing performances of the previous days again with an extremely thin squad.
Where will the game be broadcast on TV on Tuesday?
“We want to reward ourselves for our fight”, team captain Johannes Golla summed up the goal for the Russia game in one sentence in the run-up to the game. Golla was one of the few remaining players who had escaped COVID-19 infection and remained in the tournament squad for the entirety of the tournament.
Otherwise, this only applied to Philipp Weber, Lukas Zerbe and Julian Köster.
Is the semifinal still in?
No, the semi-finals can no longer be reached. In view of the extreme personnel problems, getting into the semi-finals was considered an unrealistic goal anyway. However, the German team fared remarkably well against co-favourites Spain, Norway and Sweden and gives handball fans at home hope for great tournament performances in the years to come.
Above all, the young generation of players in the national team around Captain Golla, backfield shooter Köster or left-hander Zerbe gives us courage for the coming years.
Will players return to the roster?
No, that is no longer planned. On the contrary: On Monday, the DHB announced that several players who were recently unavailable due to quarantine had already started their journey home. Patrick Wiencek, Simon Ernst, Luca Witzke, Lukas Mertens, Sebastian Firnhaber and Till Klimpke, among others, have already left the accommodation.
The rest of the DHB delegation will leave on Wednesday after the last game.
Germany’s results in preliminary round group D:
Friday January 14, 2022
6:00 p.m.: Germany – Belarus 33:29
Sunday 16 January 2022
6:00 p.m.: Germany – Austria 34:29
Tuesday, January 18, 2022
18:00: Poland – Germany 23:30
Main Round Group II: It continues with these appointments
Germany met three co-favorites one after the other in the main round group. Spain, Norway and Sweden are each given realistic chances to play for the title of this European Championship. At the end on Tuesday, the duel with outsiders Russia is still on the agenda:
Thursday, January 20, 2022
18:00: Germany – Spain 23:29
Friday, January 21, 2022
8:30 p.m .: Germany – Norway 23:28
Sunday 23 January 2022
18:00: Germany – Sweden 21:25
Tuesday, January 25, 2022
18:00: Germany – Russia
The handball championship will be broadcast here on TV and as a live stream
Again this year, the games with German participation will be broadcast on ARD and ZDF. Eurosport also shows selected top games without German participation. The broadcaster has secured up to 18 encounters.
All matches of the European Handball Championship in a complete package can be seen at sportdeutschland.tv. The EM subscription costs a one-off fee of 12 euros.
In addition, sport.de offers a comprehensive range of live tickers for the European Championship.
Here the last Germany game is shown on TV:
January 25, Germany vs. Russia: ZDF / sportstudio.de and sportdeutschland.tv broadcast live, throw-off at 6:00 p.m
By the way: The final of the European Handball Championship will take place on Sunday, January 30th at 6:00 p.m ZDF broadcast live.