Bitter end to a great comeback: Germany narrowly lost the small final against Sweden and ended the European Championship tournament in their own country with a 31:34 (12:18) defeat and without a happy ending.
For a long time it seemed like a clear defeat against the favorites from the far north, but because Germany really turned up the heat again in the second half with an outstanding Renars Uscins (eight goals) and mobilized the last of their strength, it was a dramatic finish that ultimately was not awarded the bronze medal.
Sweden qualified for the Olympics
Sweden has therefore qualified directly for the Olympic handball tournament. The German team can make up for this at a qualifying tournament in March.
Lesson learned from the “small” final: World-class teams like Sweden or the finalists Denmark and France are still a long way away from the German team. There were some clear defeats against all three big players. On the other hand, reaching the semi-finals at this home European Championship can be seen as a great success, and the future of international handball certainly belongs to the young German team.
The disappointment of losing the semi-final against Denmark seemed to quickly disappear on this big final Sunday in Cologne. Once again the Cologne Arena was completely sold out with almost 20,000 spectators and the atmosphere was very atmospheric.
This time the German handball players also received prominent support in the hall. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who opened the European Championship tournament 18 days ago in Düsseldorf in front of a world record crowd, was also there at the end and kept his fingers crossed for the German team, just like North Rhine-Westphalia Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst and Schleswig-Holstein Prime Minister Daniel Günther and Cologne’s mayor Henriette Reker.
Swedes pull away early
At the beginning, national coach Alfred Gislason relied again on his youngster Renars Uscins, who had performed brilliantly against Denmark in the semi-final. Veteran Kai Häfner, who had returned to the team, initially sat on the bench.
However, Germany didn’t get off to such a good start to the game as it did against Denmark, when they had a very strong first half. “There are too many technical errors, it doesn’t work that way,” said ARD co-commentator Johannes Bitter, and the Swedes took advantage of it. Gislason took his first timeout early at 4:7 (11th).
Early changes for the Germans
The Swedes seemed to have shaken off their unfortunate semi-final loss against France two days earlier, Andreas Palicka in particular was in brilliant form (13 saves in the first half). Gislason reacted, bringing in two new people in Sebastian Heymann and Philipp Weber in the backcourt and shortly afterwards David Späth for Andreas Wolff in goal. It was no use. The Swedes moved ahead to 14:7 (22nd).
“We can’t get away with individual actions at the front, we need more passes and have to play more wide”said Johannes Bitter. The Swedes did better tactically and were clearly leading by six goals at the break. “The Swedes have more penetration. We fail too often with free throws against goalkeeper Palicka”said the injured national player Patrick Groetzki at halftime on the sports show microphone.
Second half dramatic at the end
After the break the Germans did better. The Swedes pulled away to 21:14 with seven goals, but Gislason’s team didn’t give up and once again gave it their all. After two goals from Juri Knorr to make it 21:24 (43rd), there was hope again. The fans now also felt that something could still be done and supported the team frenetically. “It’s very good now”said Gislason during the time out.
The fact that the race to catch up didn’t work was down to the Germans themselves. Again slight mistakes in the attack, again the Scandinavians countered coldly. But Germany stuck with it, even if Sweden’s backfield man Felix Claar posed major problems for the German defense. When Christoph Steinert brought the Germans within two goals for the first time at 28:30, the Cologne Arena was boiling. The Germans continued their race to catch up ice cold and even got a sniff of an equalizer at 29:30 through Renars Uscins (54th).
The last few minutes were once again really dramatic, the Germans fought self-sacrificingly – but ultimately in vain, because the Swedes kept a cool head and can deservedly be happy about bronze at this European Championship.