analysis
The fact that the German handball players are in the semi-finals and have a medal within reach is also due to the best bench of all European Championship teams. National coach Alfred Gislason scored 16 goals in the 38:34 win against France – and had a gala moment himself.
Alfred Gislason would probably never have imagined what significance this little red button next to the referee’s table could have. It is often important when a coach presses the button to interrupt the opponent’s flow with a timeout or to readjust his own team. But for the Icelander, the timeout button represented the feeling of the right moment for the second time.
Lichtlein pass on Golla would have been gone
In the 27:30 defeat in the preliminary round against Serbia, he prevented a goal from Juri Knorr with his untimely timeout and then took full responsibility for the outcome of the game. But this time he turned the thing.
The 51st minute had arrived in Herning, the Germans’ lead had dwindled to 30:28, and the momentum seemed to be in their favor Les Bleus to tilt. Playmaker Nils Lichtlein tried to pass to Johannes Golla at the circle, but the pass was too imprecise – the ball was gone. But milliseconds before, Gislason had pressed the red button, so that Germany was allowed to retain possession of the ball after the timeout – Franz Semper scored to make it 31:28, and the lead lasted until the end.
“One out of ten decisions was wrong”
When Gislason was asked about this magical moment in the sports show, he had to laugh. “Yes, I had fun being right. Of course I know what would have happened if Golli had caught the ball and scored a goal. I’ve hit the buzzer in situations like that ten times in my career. I was wrong once, that was against Serbia. That’s why I’m happy that I’ve assessed it quite well now.”
Juri Knorr also assessed very well on Wednesday evening. When he was allowed to enter the field in the 15th minute, the game took on a different face. The sensitive top technician finally had that dreamlike lightness in his actions that he had been desperately looking for throughout the entire tournament. He scored and scored and scored: his first ten (!) throws all landed in the net, meaning he accounted for the majority of the 16 “joker goals” that evening.
Juri Knorr’s best game
“It was the best game I’ve ever seen from Juri”even Gislason, who is otherwise very reserved when it comes to superlatives, enthused. “He’s simply a world-class player, but he put too much pressure on himself before, especially against Denmark.”
Knorr himself was “extremely relieved“, but also immediately took his gala as an example of the outstanding quality of the entire bank: “That’s the nice thing about us, that someone always comes from outside and can turn the game around. That everyone helps each other and no one falls behind when they don’t get enough playing time. That’s the only way you can achieve something great.”
A medal with a deep squad?
For example, the first European Championship medal in ten years. In 2016, Germany became European champions, the coach was Dagur Sigurdsson – now the Icelandic is the coach of semi-final opponents Croatia (Friday, 5:45 p.m., live on Erste and in the full audio report). In goal then as now: Andreas Wolff, who said before this European Championship that it was the best national team he had ever played in – because it was so strong across the board.
Everyone contributed something to the win against France, said Wolff at the ARD microphone, and listed almost half the team: he mentioned Juri Knorr, Lukas Zerbe, Johannes Golla, Julian Köster, Jannik Kohlbacher, Justus Fischer and David Späth by name, and he hadn’t even mentioned three of the top five goalscorers: Renars Uscins (five goals), Marko Grgic and Lukas Mertens (four each).
During the tournament, Gislason often highlighted the potential and breadth that the team has – especially since there are two other cornerstones in Tom Kiesler defensively and Miro Schluroff offensively – against Croatia it is important to convert this bank into a medal.
