Denmark is crowned European handball champion in front of its home crowd and completes its collection of titles. The Danish super team won the final against Germany on Sunday evening in Herning with 34:27 (18:16). The young DHB team can look forward to silver.
After four World Cup titles in a row and the Olympic gold in 2024, the generation around world handball player Mathias Gidsel is also crowned European champions and holds all the major titles. It is Denmark’s first European Championship gold since 2012, while Germany won silver, just like at the 2024 Olympics.
“We can leave the tournament with our heads held high and have come a lot closer to Denmark compared to the last final,” said Golla. “It’s the second silver medal in a year and a half, with a very young team, which makes us very proud.”
Gidsel sets European Championship record
In the Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning, which was sold out with 15,000 spectators, a strong Andreas Wolff (14 saves) made up for the mistakes in the offense (7 German ball losses) for a long time, and in the end the Danes pulled away thanks to strong goalkeeping performances from Emil Nielsen and Kevin Möller. Gidsel, MVP of the tournament, only hit 50 percent of his shots, but provided seven assists and became the European Championship record scorer with seven goals: 68 goals by a player have never been recorded in a tournament.
In addition to Wolff, Julian Köster (4 goals/5 assists) and captain Johannes Golla (5) were particularly impressive in the DHB team. Renars Uscins (2 goals in 7 attempts) and Juri Knorr (5/11) had little luck at the front and each lost the ball twice. Germany was also weakened by two red cards against defense specialist Tom Kiesler (14th minute) and Jannik Kohlbacher (57th).
“I’m just incredibly proud of the team and the tournament we played,” said Lukas Zerbe. “Golly [Johannes Golla, d. Red.] “He just found the right words in the circle that if we continue like this, we’ll be able to win a title at some point.”
Danish handball players defeat European Championship curse after 14 years
After the players from this year’s All-Star team were officially honored – Wolff and Golla are among them – the first goals in the final began. Julian Köster had the immediate answer to Simon Pytlick’s 1-0 after three minutes. The VfL Gummersbach backcourt player played a strong first half, scoring four goals and setting up three more for his colleagues. After ten minutes, the 25-year-old scored to make it 4-4.
The pace remained high, tournament MVP Mathias Gidsel caught the German defense several times in the retreat phase, otherwise the DHB defense largely had the Dane under control. In the 14th minute, the recovered defense specialist Tom Kiesler came a moment too late, caught the left-hander by the neck and was shown the red card. The world champion took advantage of the majority and pulled ahead to 10:7 (15th).
Defense specialist Kiesler sees the red card early on
Lukas Zerbe ended the German offensive slump and Juri Knorr also found his way into the game better and better, so that the national coach had words of praise during the time-out (23rd) when the score was 13:13: “We have them exactly where we wanted them.” In the last few minutes before the break, the DHB team lost their line a bit, looked for the pass to the circle too often and thus invited the Danes to easy tempo goals.
Scores another artistic goal with his back to the goal: Johannes Golla
Because Kevin Möller, who has now been substituted, also made a few saves and won the direct duel against Wolff, Denmark went into the break with 18:16. The man from THW Kiel came back with two saves after the restart, while captain Golla made it 19:19 (35th) with a brace. While Wolff was running hot, Möller was too often the last stop for the German throwers.
German team finds its way into the second half well
Both teams remained scoreless for over five minutes. Zerbe once again overcame the Flensburg goalkeeper with his fine touch to make it 20:22 (41st). But the German attackers continued to fail too often because of Möller for a serious comeback, while Hansen scored from seven meters to make it 26:22. Marko Grgic had previously illegally stopped the previously strong Thomas Arnoldsen and consequently saw the time penalty.
In this phase it was solely thanks to Wolff that the DHB team stayed within striking distance. When the score was 23:26 (49th), the 34-year-old made an outstanding save when he deflected Gidsel’s throw onto the empty goal. Grgric took responsibility in the attack and scored twice, keeping the German gold dream alive.
Goalkeeper Möller and technical errors prevent Germany from catching up
In the final phase, however, the Danish class prevailed. While Nils Lichtlein failed from the seven-meter point (56th), the Danes turned to victory with a 5-0 run. It was precisely in this phase that Jannik Kohlbacher (57th) received the second red card for the DHB team, another setback. When Gidsel made the final score with his seventh goal, the celebration in Herning was boundless.
