Top start to the European Handball Championship
Captain stands out – DHB team celebrates clear opening victory
Updated on January 15, 2026 – 10:17 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
After verbal skirmishes in advance, the duel with Austria was eagerly awaited. The DHB team immediately underlined its title ambitions with a strong performance.
The German national handball team started the European Championship 2026 with a convincing victory. In the neighborhood duel against Austria, the DHB team won 30:27 (12:8) in front of 5,820 spectators in Herning, Denmark.
The cornerstone for the success was an excellent defensive performance with strong support from Andreas Wolff and an excellent Johannes Golla. The DHB captain was the German team’s best thrower with seven goals and was named player of the game.
Before the game, goalkeeper Wolff further fueled the mood with critical statements about his neighbor’s style of play. This is “unattractive” and characterized by “ugliness”. “No one actually wants to see that,” the veteran complained.
Team Austria went into the game with corresponding motivation, for which Gislason removed the injured backcourt player Nils Lichtlein and Rune Dahmke from the squad.
But Wolff followed up his pithy words with action. With a few brilliant saves in the early stages, the 34-year-old combined with the aggressive defense ensured that Germany had only conceded one goal in a 4-1 win after ten minutes.
But Austria also had a strong keeper between the posts in Constantin Möstl from TBV Lemgo Lippe, third in the Bundesliga, so that the DHB team could not pull away any further. At 6:6 (18th), the small cushion was gone.
After a good twenty minutes, the national coach reacted and brought fresh forces for the attacking game with Juri Knorr, Miro Schluroff and Franz Semper. That paid off.
“Boys, it’s a phenomenal defense. We’re wearing them down,” Gislason cheered on his charges during a timeout a few minutes before the break when the score was 11:7. We went into the dressing room with a four-goal lead. “I’m very happy with the first half,” praised team manager Benjamin Chatton on ARD and added: “The goal is to keep the Austrians under 20 goals.”
Nothing came of this, but the German victory was never seriously threatened. At 17:12 (39th), Germany was within five goals for the first time and didn’t let a brief moment of shock around Wolff deter them from their path to victory. The 2016 European champion had to leave the parquet with 20 minutes to go after a hit to the head.