The German handball players will face Qatar, Serbia and the fifth in the upcoming Africa championship at the World Cup in January 2023.
This was the result of the draw on Saturday (July 2nd, 2022) in Katowice, Poland. The selection of the German Handball Association (DHB) will also play their preliminary round matches in Group E there.
In the ARD interview, national coach Alfred Gislason spoke of an interesting group and at the same time stated that winning the group was the goal: “We’ll take the points into the main round, so of course we want to get the maximum possible number.”
Handball World Championship from January 11th to 29th, 2023
The preliminary round is played in eight groups of four. The top three in each case move into the four main round groups with six teams each. Should Germany advance, defending champions Denmark, Norway and Croatia would be possible opponents there. Only the top two teams from the main round advance to the knockout stages, starting with the quarterfinals.
27 of the 32 participants have been determined so far, only the five best of the upcoming Africa Championship are missing. The game will be played in nine cities, five in Sweden (Stockholm, Malmö, Jonköping, Kristianstad, Gothenburg) and four in Poland (Katowice, Kraków, Plock, Gdansk).
Germany will play their Group E preliminary round matches at the 11,000+ capacity Spodek Arena in Katowice. The games are scheduled for January 13 against Qatar, on January 15 against Serbia and on January 17 against the Africa representative. The German team has qualified for a World Cup finals for the 13th time in a row.
Long-term goal home EM 2024: “A lot of potential”
When asked about the goals for the World Cup, the national coach emphasized in an interview with Sportschau that the team is still in a major upheaval: “We’re certainly not among the top four or five in the world at the moment. We have significantly rejuvenated the team. But we have already delivered good games this year, despite the many failures, especially at the last European Championship. The team has a lot of potential and very good prospects“said Gislason and is already looking to 2024, to the European Championships in his own country.
DHB team only in twelfth place at the 2021 World Cup in Egypt
Before the World Cup next January, Gislason will not have many opportunities to work with the players. The next DHB course will not start until autumn, there will be no more compulsory games for the national team until the new year, since Germany, as the host of the 2024 European Championship, does not have to qualify.
At the last World Cup in 2021 in Egypt, Germany only finished twelfth – it was the worst place in the 25 tournaments that have been played so far. A DHB men’s team has been world champion in indoor handball three times: in 1938, 1978 and 2007.