First the cheers, then the mood dampener: Germany’s handball players reached the semi-finals of their home European Championships, but suffered a bitter defeat at the end of the main round after a festival of missed throws.
With the semi-final ticket in their pocket, national coach Alfred Gislason’s team lost 24:30 (14:13) against Croatia in Cologne and missed their fifth win in their seventh game.
“If you have 24 missed throws, that’s not nice, we wanted to win the game,” said Gislason on ARD: “But we gave those who didn’t play much a chance to show themselves. Unfortunately, we have an incredible number of clear chances discarded.”
The DHB stars around playmaker Juri Knorr had reason to celebrate even before the throw-off: thanks to double help from France and Iceland, the semi-finals had already been confirmed shortly before the throw-off. The opponent on Friday is the top favorite for the title, Denmark.
The best German throwers in front of 19,750 spectators in the sold-out Lanxess Arena were captain Johannes Golla and Sebastian Heymann with four goals each. Because the DHB team carelessly threw away numerous opportunities, they suffered the first tournament defeat for a German team in Cologne’s “Cathedral of Handball” on Wednesday evening.
Especially in attack, the DHB selection lacked the ultimate consistency with a high error rate. After seven minutes without a German goal, the Croatians around their strong keeper Dominik Kuzmanovic pulled away to six goals in the second half. The DHB men never recovered from this.
Handball European Championship: semi-final “incredibly awesome” for Germany
With 5:5 points, Germany finished the main round Group I in second place behind the unbeaten Olympic champions France (10:0). The French had already caused cheers in the German camp before the game began with their 35:32 win against Hungary, as did the Icelanders with their win against Austria (26:24).
This is of course incredibly great for the team. That makes us incredibly proud,” DHB sports director Axel Kromer told SID. There is “no team we can’t win against,” he added, referring to the Denmark cracker. The second final ticket is played by France and defending champions Sweden All games take place in the “Mecca of Handball” in Cologne, where a German team has never lost a tournament game.
A nice side effect: By reaching the round of the last four, the German team also secured direct qualification for the World Cup finals, which will be held next year in Croatia, Denmark and Norway.
Croatia game starts well and ends with a lot of missed throws
The last main round game against the Croatians was a relaxed warm-up for the semi-finals for the DHB team. Captain Johannes Golla and his teammates found out about Austria’s defeat in the team hotel, and they then experienced Hungary’s defeat up close in the hall together with the fans. Some were excited on the sidelines, others were watching on their cell phones in the locker room.
When the DHB team itself was challenged, things got off to a good start. Because Andreas Wolff made five saves in goal after just eight minutes, Germany took a two-goal lead at 5:3 (7th). In the following minutes, however, it became increasingly clear that the German team’s game against the eliminated Croatians was no longer about anything in the table.
At 10:13 (25th), Gislason’s team was three goals behind for the first time. However, this was the starting signal for the best phase in the German game to date. Led by the convincing backcourt player Sebastian Heymann, the DHB men fought for a narrow lead at halftime with a 4-0 run within four minutes.
After the break, the game initially remained close, until 19:19 (45th minute) neither team was able to pull away. But seven minutes followed with a number of missed throws and no goal of their own.