After the brilliant 42:31 on Thursday, the German handball team landed hard in the second European Championship test against Iceland. This time there was a deserved 29:31 (15:16) defeat in Munich.
The Germans got off to a lightning start in the game ten weeks before the title fights in Denmark, Sweden and Norway. After a minute and a half, Alfred Gislason’s team led 2-0 thanks to a double strike from Julian Köster and then increased it to 5-2 thanks to Miro Schluroff and two goals from Tim Freihöfer. But then the DHB team went into a rut, and at the same time 40-year-old Ágúst Elí Björgvinsson improved in the Icelandic goal and was the last stop for the German attackers on several occasions.
Too many ball losses and missed top chances
In addition, there were several ball losses, lack of concentration in defense and missed free throws, so that Gislason became increasingly angry. The Icelander took his first time out early on, but seemed quite taciturn and had captain Andreas Golla finish his instructions several times.
The messages from the two obviously didn’t really reach the entire team, Iceland equalized and then suddenly even pulled away: After 25 minutes, the guests in Munich were suddenly ahead 15:11 – even though David Späth made a series of brilliant saves in the DHB goal.
Späth later admitted: “Overall, we deserved to lose. We had two or three chances to get even closer, but we just didn’t show the same face as we did on Thursday.” Right winger Lukas Zerbe was also honest: “We simply had too many technical errors and missed too many free throws.”
Three-goal final spurt before the break
After all: Shortly before the break, the Germans pulled themselves together again, suddenly defended really well again and scored three times in front: Freihöger, then Franz Sepmper and finally Mathi Häseler ensured that the half-time deficit was only one goal.
When he went into the dressing room, Freihöfer admitted on ZDF: “We made too many mistakes in the middle of the first half, and of course Iceland punished them mercilessly. And this time they also played with a goalkeeper.” Of course they did that on Thursday too, but it didn’t last very long.
Semper equalizes and tension arises
In the second round the game remained exciting, Iceland was at least a class better than the first duel. Iceland initially continued to have a slight advantage, but was no longer able to pull away. In the 38th minute, Semper equalized to make it 20:20, and Marko Grgic also got stronger in this phase. Gislason had long since changed his tactics to 5-1 and a real thriller developed.
The hall in Munich went wild when Viggó Kristjánsson failed to get a seven-meter pass past Andreas Wolff ten minutes before the end. Immediately afterwards, Späth returned between the posts and defused a fast counter-attack from the Icelander. But as much as the keepers shone, the Germans suddenly found it difficult to finish. Grgic, Knorr and the slightly injured Köster were suddenly no longer a factor; Iceland moved from 27:27 to 29:27 by the 54th minute.
Clear words from Golla and Gislason
But Späth in particular resisted the impending defeat, held on outstandingly and cheered on the fans in Munich again after every parade. “But in the end, what we lacked was the speed that distinguished us in the first duel.”admitted Golla after the narrow defeat. Gislason was also honest: “There was simply a lack of consistency, and some players didn’t reach the level they had on Thursday. Overall, we were too poor in attack.”