Bratislava (dpa) – Nine Corona cases, only one goalkeeper left – and despite this hull team, the hopes for the European Championship live on more than ever: Germany’s extremely decimated handball players created a small sensation in the final preliminary round of the European Championship.
Although the DHB selection had just 14 players, they beat Poland 30:23 (15:12) in Bratislava and are now entering the main round with an ideal score.
The best thrower of the team of national coach Alfred Gislason in front of 1076 spectators was EM newcomer Christoph Steinert, who celebrated his birthday with nine goals. And although the entry into the next phase of the tournament was already certain before the game, the success was extremely important: Because the German team takes the two points from this game into the main round. The first opponent there is defending champions Spain on January 20th.
Gislason: “Superior defence, superior attack”
“I know the individual class very well. The fact that they can do it under these conditions, under this pressure, is of course great. You could tell all day how focused the lads were. A huge compliment for what they showed. Outstanding defence , outstanding attack – there from the first minute,” praised coach Gislason on ZDF and captain Johannes Golla added: “Basically, I thought we could do it because we showed in the last few games that we’re capable of it. The signs weren’t good before the game. It wasn’t the best preparation for the game. We spent two days in isolation.” Looking ahead to the next game, Golla said: “It won’t get any easier. We knew the game against Poland was extremely important.”
Heavily decimated DHB team
Regardless of the result, what happened in Bratislava will probably remain unique in the history of German handball: Nine national players dropped out after positive corona tests, so that the DHB selection had to play with 14 instead of the 16 allowed players. National coach Gislason was even lucky that Bitter, Rune Dahmke, Fabian Wiede, Paul Drux and Sebastian Firnhaber, who were only nominated the day before, arrived in Slovakia on time and then tested negative for Corona. Otherwise, the DHB squad would have been significantly more decimated.
And because left winger Marcel Schiller and goalkeeper Till Klimpke also tested positive immediately before kick-off, the 39-year-old Bitter was the only available keeper in the German team. However, the 2007 world champion did not need a long period of adjustment. Already in the first round the veteran parried some throwing attempts by the Poles. And the rest of the team seemed to say to themselves in view of the considerable personnel problems: Now more than ever! Newcomers to the European Championship, such as second division professional Julian Köster or 32-year-old Steinert, were in top form at times. There was no other way. Because otherwise there was hardly anyone there.
Goalkeeper Bitter had to play through
“Merciless emotions. It was just amazing what the boys showed,” said DHB sports director Axel Kromer at halftime. “But we have to assume that we won’t play 60 minutes consistently.” In addition to Bitter, Drux, Wiede, Dahmke and Firnhaber should not have slept much the night before, but the DHB selection fought with all their might against the Corona outbreak and the Poles, who were so sovereign in the tournament before. Because in addition to Klimpke, the second goalkeeper Andreas Wolff was also out due to Corona, Bitter had to play through.
And when the people in front ran out of breath, the oldie from HSV Hamburg was there. When the 21-year-old Köster carelessly lost the ball in his own half in the 39th minute, Bitter shone with an outstanding save against the Pole who appeared free in front of him. Bitter had hardly trained handball in the past few days. The entire German team was also unable to prepare for the game with final training because they had to wait for the results of their corona tests. “There’s never been anything like it,” said Gislason on ZDF.
Two more nominations
It has never happened before that a national coach does not yet know which squad will be available to him in two days for the first main round match of the European Championship. In order to have at least 16 players again, the DHB nominated goalkeeper Daniel Rebmann from Frisch Auf Göppingen and Patrick Zieker from TVB Stuttgart. Both are due to join the team on Wednesday morning. Whether there will be more corona cases after that remains to be seen. However, the DHB selection has not yet suffered any sporting damage.
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