After the Corona chaos with the many late nominations and the twelve players who had tested positive in the meantime, there was initially better news for the Germans than for the Spaniards right before the game started.
While with them Joan Canellas and Ian Tarrafeta were tested positive, Steinert was able to travel to the hall immediately before the start of the game and strengthen Alfred Gislason’s team. After several negative corona tests, the nine-time goal scorer from the Poland game was allowed to leave the isolation again.
Germany starts strong
At the beginning, Gislason relied on three very mobile and intelligent players in the backcourt in Julian Köster, Philipp Weber and follower Fabian Wiede and did without some throwing power. Accordingly, the DHB selection was constantly looking for the close-range zone with quick starts, surprising passes and playing with the line runner.
That worked really well right away. Defensively, the Germans could be happy that goalkeeper Johannes Bitter was able to defuse one or two free throws by the Iberians. Jordi Ribera’s team often played the DHB cover apart relatively easily and the veteran from HSV Hamburg had to save.
However, Johannes Golla and Co. played well overall and acted on an equal footing with the defending champion, who had also completed the preliminary round with three wins. After twenty minutes it was 11:10 for the DHB.