After the disappointing start at the home European Championships in Mönchengladbach against Wales (3:3), Germany’s hockey world champions are hoping for a liberation in the prestige duel against the Netherlands.
“We know the boys well and know what we have to bring”said top striker Niklas Wellen before the game on Monday (6 p.m. in the live ticker at sportschau.de): “We don’t have to flip a switch, we just see that we approach certain things differently.”
“A bit of pressure”
His team-mate Malte Hellwig, scorer in Saturday’s opener, thought so now “already a little pressure on the boiler” be. “This is the absolute top game against what is perhaps the biggest favorite of the tournament from the outset. But we will go about it with the same confidence as we would have done with a different result.”said the 25-year-old from HTC Uhlenhorst Mülheim.
The DHB selection, which surprisingly crowned itself world champion in January, is fighting in Mönchengladbach for the first European Championship title since 2013 and the associated direct qualification for the Olympic Games in Paris. The defending champion and world number one from the Netherlands is by far the strongest group opponent of the German team.