Damper in Denmark: Germany’s handball players received a lesson from the world champion in their first international match after the World Cup. The team of national coach Alfred Gislason deservedly lost 23:30 (11:16) to Denmark and was presented in phases.
Captain Johannes Golla and Co. presented themselves in front of 4644 spectators in Aalborg, Denmark, as busy guests at the Danish World Cup after-party. While the hosts shone 39 days after their final triumph against Olympic champions France (34:29) even without seven world champions, the German team acted in the first of two duels against the industry leader in a shaky way and in front with a very weak conversion of chances.
To make matters worse, Juri Knorr is now threatened with a loss: the best German thrower with five goals left the field in the final phase and grabbed his right thigh.
The chance to do better comes quickly for the fifth in the World Cup: the second meeting between the two teams will take place on Sunday (2:15 p.m. / ZDF) in Hamburg. With the games against the world champions of 2019, 2021 and 2023, the German team will start their long preparation for the European Championships at home in January 2024.
“The result is not unimportant,” said Gislason before the game against the industry leader, “but it is more important that we continue to develop. We focus primarily on ourselves and see what the games bring.”
DHB team “too hesitant” against Denmark
On Thursday evening, however, the German team was not quite up to par without youngster Julian Köster (cold). After a good twelve minutes, Gislason was forced to call a time-out at 5:10. “We make too many misses and too many slight mistakes,” complained the Icelander: “It’s all our fault, no matter what the Danes are playing. We’re too hesitant.”
The defense and keeper Andreas Wolff improved significantly afterwards. Because the DHB selection at the front continued to slip and missed a number of best chances, Germany did not get any closer until the break. Symptomatic were two discarded seven meters of Knorr, who is usually so accurate.
“We have to approach the matter with more courage and trust in order to get here again,” said DHB sports director Axel Kromer during the half-time break. The German team couldn’t do that. At 13:21 (39th) a preliminary decision was made.
The comparisons with the team of the Danish national coach Nikolaj Jacobsen are part of the program of the EHF Euro Cup, in which, in addition to Germany and Denmark with European champions Sweden and the EM runners-up Spain, the four teams already qualified for the EM 2024 take part. The German team had previously played against Sweden (33:37) and in Spain (31:32). The second leg is still to come.