analysis
The German handball players are in the semi-finals of the European Championships. And as much as the DHBteam deserved it: The other three semi-finalists Denmark, France and Sweden are of a different caliber.
When handball coaches talk about how they would like to have every position filled twice as well, it is almost always just a wish. Hardly any team can really compensate for over 60 minutes if several of their top performers have a less good day.
Two lucky coaches who can do exactly that at this European Championship are Denmark’s Nikolaj Jacobsen and France Guillaume Gille. Consequently, both nations qualified for the semi-finals as group winners of their main round group. The Danes will face Germany on Friday (January 26, 2024), while France will face Sweden. Denmark, France and Sweden were all in the semi-finals of the last three major tournaments and have experienced and consistently top-class squads.
Denmark’s luxury: Landin is only 1b
The Danes probably have the largest selection. Because while the French can replace all field players without any real loss of quality, the Danes even have this luxury in goal. Niklas Landin, multiple world handball player, is currently not the strongest goalkeeper in the Danish squad at this European Handball Championship – at least in terms of numbers and form. That’s because Emil Nielsen from FC Barcelona is playing an outstanding tournament. A fabulous odds of 40 percent Balls held is the best value among the Keepers at the European Championships. Up until the last and sportingly meaningless main round game against Slovenia, the Danes had won everything in this tournament – the closest was the 28:27 against Sweden.
Jacobsen rests his top players
The last main round game was lost 25:28 (14:17). This is certainly remarkable in that it ended a series of 16 victorious games in major tournaments and the aura of invincibility of the 2023 world champion was lost, but on the other hand, the Danes were also able to save valuable energy. DMathias Gidsel (Füchse Berlin), Simon Pytlick (SG Flensburg-Handewitt) and Magnus Saugstrup (SC Magdeburg) were completely spared, other players got more of the game than usual.
In view of the high pressure at this tournament, this is an additional pound and the narrow defeat against highly motivated Slovenians, who wanted to move into the game for fifth place, should not be overstated. The Danes are the big favorites for the European Championship title, especially with their top Bundesliga players around the aforementioned trio, their goalkeepers and the attack-like counter-attack game.
Palicka, speed and relief for Gottfridsson – Sweden with great ambitions
Anyone who unfortunately loses by one goal against the top favorites is of course also a serious candidate for the European Championship. As defending champions, the Swedes arrived with the greatest possible ambitions. After the defeat against the Danes, the Swedes also only played for the golden pineapple in their last main round game. It was already clear that they would finish second in the group. The Norwegian one was spared Coach Glenn Solberg in this game includes goalkeeper Andreas Palicka, who has had an outstanding European Championship so far.
Palicka’s parades are a very important factor in the success of the “Tre Kronor”. One of their greatest strengths is their unconditional tempo game, which of course helps with lots of held balls. So it’s no wonder that the two lightning-fast left wingers Hampus Wanne and Lucas Pellas are the team’s two best shooters in the tournament. In the backcourt, Flensburg’s Jim Gottfridsson is still the big key player, but Magdeburg’s Felix Claar and Veszprem’s Lukas Sandell have also found their way into the tournament well and are taking the pressure off Gottfridsson at points.
France’s Bellahcene: The only Bundesliga legionnaire, but extremely important
While the majority of the players in Denmark and Sweden play in the Bundesliga – Sweden has four from Magdeburg alone, Denmark has five from Flensburg – things are now different in France. The times when the French were mostly in the German Beletage their money is over. The one remaining Bundesliga legionnaire is particularly important in this tournament: goalkeeper Samir Bellahcene, currently from Dunkirk Loaned to THW Kiel, he now has thanks to his strong performances in the tournament Remi Desbonnet the status as number 1A has expired.
Before the tournament, the goalkeeper position was considered the most likely weak point in the otherwise outstanding French squad. And even if Bellahcene is playing a really good tournament, France has this position, which national coach Alfred Gislason recently called “most important in handball” described as a slight disadvantage compared to the other semi-finalists. It’s the only one.
France coach Gille doesn’t have a real front seven
France’s coaching team Head Coach Gill distributes the game shares very evenly throughout the tournament and de facto has no real first seven. The greatest weapon is the individual class of the French, as well as their outstanding physique and athleticism and their great experience at the highest level level.
The experienced team punishes every phase of weakness in the opponent with all its consequences – the games against them are often relatively close for a long time, then the opponent makes two or three mistakes in a row and the French score three goals in 90 seconds. That’s what happened against Germany, and that’s what happened in the last main round game against Hungary, when it was no longer about anything for France, Gill But I didn’t have to take it easy because all the players get regular breaks anyway. Only Bellahcene and, above all, veteran Nikola Karabatic were completely excluded, but he is already 39 years old.
In this tournament, no one could really defend the game about the French circle runners, Ludovic Fabregas and Nicolas Tournat are almost always the target of the French attack when things get tight – and are almost always successful. Fabregas scored 32 goals from 36 attempts over the course of the tournament – even for a pivot who finishes very close to the goal, this is an outstanding result.