Italy desolate
Surprise in the German group at the Handball World Cup
January 25, 2025 – 5:15 p.mReading time: 1 min.
Until recently, Italy was considered the strongest German opponent in the main round. But there was no sign of that in the last game.
The Swiss handball players pulled off a surprise in the last World Cup group game. Coach Andy Schmidt’s team played Italy to the wall and won the direct duel clearly with 33:25. The Swiss thus overtook the southern Europeans in the German group table and jumped to third place. Previously, Italy was considered one of the surprises of the tournament, having clearly beaten Tunisia and the Czech Republic. The southern Europeans also won the World Cup test against Switzerland 31:29.
In the duel against Italy, the Swiss led 14:9 at the break thanks to a strong defensive performance. In the second half, both teams became stronger offensively, and Switzerland in particular was almost unstoppable. The best thrower was Lenny Rubin with new goals ahead of Luka Maros with seven goals. Italy’s Leo Prantner also scored seven goals.
Under the new national coach Andy Schmid, who has been in office since February 2024, the trend is clearly pointing upwards. Switzerland did not qualify for the 2023 World Cup, and the Swiss came 21st out of 24 teams at the European Championships last year.
Now they will most likely end the main round phase in third place. Unless the Czech Republic gets a clear win against high-flyers Denmark.