The German handball juniors underlined their title ambitions at the U21 World Cup by reaching the quarter-finals early. At the start of the main round, the still undefeated and favored co-organizers of the World Cup in Magdeburg happily prevailed against defending champion France with 30:29 (17:16) and thus already booked a place for the round of the top eight on Thursday in Berlin.
In qualifying for the duels for the semi-finals, coach Martin Heuberger’s team, which started the second phase of the tournament with two points thanks to three preliminary round wins, benefited from Croatia’s previous 36:23 win against Tunisia. As a result, the World Cup runners-up from the Balkans, like the German team, have four points in their account before the duel with Heuberger’s players on Monday (8:30 p.m. / Eurosport). France and Tunisia are still without a point and can no longer displace the two top teams from the top two places.
Against France, the home side around their top player Renars Uscins set an exclamation mark early on with a four-goal lead, but allowed the Equipe tricolore to come back within a goal before the break. In a similarly negligent manner, Heuberger’s team even lost a lead of seven goals in the second round, but were ultimately able to celebrate a happy ending. The most successful Germans were the five-time scorers Justus Fischer (Hanover-Burgdorf) and Moritz Sauer (Potsdam).
The young Germans are aiming for their third title after triumphing at the 2009 World Cup in Egypt and two years later in Greece, and not just because of the home advantage. Even with these two title wins, Heuberger, who later also worked as a men’s national coach, sat on the bench with the talents.
Ideally, the selection of the German Handball Federation (DHB) would fight again in Berlin in the semi-finals after the quarter-finals on Saturday for a place in the final. The medals will be played again in the German capital the next day.