First with difficulty, then sovereign: Germany’s hockey world champions have secured the targeted group victory at the home European Championship and bought the semi-final ticket.
After a stuttering start, national coach Andre Henning’s team beat France 4-1 (1-1) and defended the one-point lead in Group B over the Netherlands. The defending champion had temporarily overtaken them with a thumping victory over Wales (8-1).
Captain Mats Grambusch (24th), Lukas Windfeder (31st), Gonzalo Peillat (39th) and Thies Prinz (42nd) for the selection of the German Hockey Association (DHB) met in front of the loud home fans in the Mönchengladbach Hockey Park fights for the first European title since 2013 and the associated direct qualification for the Olympic Games in Paris. Charles Masson (26th) was successful for France. In the semifinals on Friday, Germany will now face England, fifth in the world rankings.
Captain Mats Grambusch on the spot
The game against France was “a kind of quarter-final,” said Henning. But unlike two days earlier in the classic against the Netherlands, in which the DHB men had already led 2-0 after five minutes, the hosts initially struggled. The outsider acted bravely, with a penalty corner the German goalkeeper Jean-Paul Danneberg (7th) was challenged early on.
On the other side, too, the first penalty corners did not find the hoped-for path into the goal, Tom Grambusch (11th) and Peillat (14th) missed, a German corner variant (19th) was defused. Chances from the game remained scarce.
Then Captain Mats Grambusch was there: After the next unsuccessful penalty corner, the native of Gladbach followed up, his deflected shot from a tight angle brought the 1-0 the Germans were looking for.
But the strong French quickly hit back, and Masson’s equalizer resulted from an initially unsuccessful penalty corner. Germany ran in furiously, without success until the half-time break.
Bang after halftime
But the DHB men came out of the cabin with a bang. 44 seconds were played when Windfeder put the favorite back in the lead with a penalty corner.
The French seemed impressed, Germany squeezed the opponent in their own half in the third quarter, but missed promising chances – including a seven-meter penalty from Tom Grambusch (39th) – unused. But then Peillat also scored a penalty corner, and Prinz made the preliminary decision before the final quarter.
The “Honamas” are following the German women in the knockout phase, who had entered the round of four the day before with an impeccable record and clean sheet and are fighting against Belgium on Thursday evening for a place in the final.