Less than six months ago, Germany and Spain last played against each other in a major tournament. At the Olympic Games on July 24, there was a 27:28 (13:12) from a German perspective.
A few months earlier, the Germans had lost 28:32 (13:16) in the main round of the World Cup. A year earlier it had set a juicy 26:33 (11:14) in the preliminary round of the European Championship.
Only four German players left
From the Olympic game, which was just six months ago, excluding possible further corona cases, only four DHB players will be on the field again on Thursday (January 20th, 2022): Johannes Bitter, Philipp Weber, Johannes Golla and Paul Drux . Two of them were not even in the original squad for the European Championship, but jumped into the breach due to the many corona-related failures.
The Iberians were at least seven people from the Olympic duel in the last group game of this European Championship against Bosnia-Herzegovina (28:24) “on the plate”.
Unconcerned against the favorites?
Especially from a German point of view, the cards will be completely reshuffled on Thursday. Players like Julian Köster, who was so strong in the last group game against Poland, go into the game unaffected by failures against Spain.
It was also a certain carelessness that the DHB selection showed against Poland. After the Corona mess with nine failures, short-term follow-up nominations and a lot of time isolated in the single rooms, the Germans went into the game with a “right now mentality”. And especially against defending champions Spain, who are going into the game as clear favorites, they should be able to keep them.
Dujshebaev is missing – the collective remains strong
However, the Spaniards are also not at their best. Above all, the absence of Alex Dujshebaev in the backcourt and in cover as an unpleasant early “ball thief” is a clear weakness for Jordi Ribera’s team.
Nevertheless, the experienced coach still has a very strong collective. Which meant that in the three preliminary round victories over Sweden, the Czech Republic and Bosnia-Herzegovina, another player was always the best shooter. Just like the German team, by the way.
A touch of 2016?
You should always be careful with such comparisons, but the situation of the DHB team is a bit reminiscent of the 2016 European Championship. A young team without the big stars, who had to cope with failures in the middle of the tournament and had to integrate replacements. Well, back then there were only two.
Incidentally, the successors were Julius Kühn and Kai Häfner, who are now among the established players and will not be used due to positive corona tests. At that time both played in the final against Spain and scored eight goals together in a 24:17 win.
Status: 01/18/2022, 10:30 p.m