In the last group game of the home European Championship, the DHB team suffered its first defeat against France. Only one star was able to convince, two received a grade five. The individual criticism.
In the end, a fighting performance wasn’t enough: In the third and final group game of the home European Championship, the German national handball team had to admit defeat 30:33 against record world champions France.
A strong start and an euphorically cheering audience in the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Berlin, which was once again sold out with 13,571, were not enough in the end against the powerful French team led by veteran and player of the game Nikola Karabatić.
Especially in the second half, the German team seemed too tired to offer sufficient resistance to their powerful and physical opponents. “In the end, one or the other was a bit tired,” said national coach Alfred Gíslason on ARD after the game. His conclusion: “The French deserved to win.”
“Of course it would have been great if we could have taken the two points from today,” said Gíslason with a view to the upcoming main round. “We didn’t do that and we didn’t deserve it. But there was a lot of positive things about it. We still have the goal of getting to the semi-finals.”
Goalkeeper Andreas Wolff analyzed: “Of course I’m disappointed that we lost the game. Overall, we fought well. There were little things that were missing for us.” But he was optimistic: “Nothing is lost yet. Losing to France is not the end of the world.”
Wolff himself experienced an upward trend in the German goal after a strong first game and a weak second game. With numerous saves in important moments, he kept the German team in the game for a long time. Apart from Wolff, there were many average performances, two stars disappointed across the board. You can read the entire individual review in the photo show here or above.