Germany’s handball players will travel to Denmark on Monday (January 13, 2025) without pivot Tim Zechel (SC Magdeburg) and goalkeeper Joel Birlehm (TSV Hannover-Burgdorf). National coach Alfred Gislason removed the two from his final World Cup squad for the World Cup (January 14th to February 2nd).
Both players can be nominated at any time. It had already been discussed with Birlehm in advance that he would be available as the third man at home during the World Cup should Andreas Wolff or David Späth be unavailable during the tournament. Gislason decided after the dress rehearsal against Brazil (28:26) on Saturday in Hamburg that another player, Zechel, who was initially brought into the extended squad to replace his injured position colleague Jannik Kohlbacher, would not be traveling with him.
Matchday line-up includes 16 players
This means that the DHB coach has a 17-man squad at his disposal in Herning, Denmark, where Germany will face Denmark in the first preliminary round game on Wednesday (January 15, 2025, 8:30 p.m. live on Erste and as a live stream on sportschau.de). For each game, this squad must then be reduced to 16 players. During the tournament, Gislason can also make five changes with players from the 35-man squad that was fixed in November.
On Monday, after a morning training session, the German team will travel by bus from Hamburg to the team headquarters in Silkeborg, Denmark. In addition to Poland, the other opponents in preliminary group A are Switzerland and the Czech Republic. The first three teams reach the main round, which the German team would also complete in the Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning.
The final line-up of the German handball teamNational team at a glance:
Goal: David Späth (Rhein-Neckar Löwen), Andreas Wolff (THW Kiel)
Field: Rune Dahmke (THW Kiel), Justus Fischer (TSV Hannover-Burgdorf), Johannes Golla (SG Flensburg-Handewitt), Marko Grgic (ThSV Eisenach), Timo Kastening (MT Melsungen), Juri Knorr (Rhein-Neckar Löwen), Julian Köster (VfL Gummersbach), Nils Lichtlein (Füchse Berlin), Lukas Mertens (SC Magdeburg), Franz Semper (SC DHfK Leipzig), Christoph Steinert (HC Erlangen), Lukas Stutzke (TSV Hannover-Burgdorf), Renars Uscins (TSV Hannover-Burgdorf), Luca Witzke (SC DHfK Leipzig), Lukas Zerbe (THW Kiel)