Germany’s handball players can still hope for fifth place at the European Championships. They prevailed quite confidently against Romania.
The team of national coach Markus Gaugisch won on Wednesday (11/16/2022) in Skopje in the last main round game with 32:28 (16:14). In order to qualify as third in the group for the placement game, the German team needs support. Johanna Stockschläder was the best German thrower with ten goals.
Gaugisch: “Chance is small”
“Now let’s wait and see if something works or not,” said Gaugisch: “Of course you hope, but the chance is small. We can’t do anything anyway, we’ve done our job.” Captain Alina Grijseels is also hoping for a happy ending: “We wanted to win, that was the most important thing for us because we want to go to Ljubljana,” she said.
Double protection needed
The selection of the German Handball Federation (DHB) with 4:6 points now has to hope for a defeat of the Spaniards (3:5) against the French (8:0), who are already top of the table. In addition, the Netherlands (3:5) must not win against Montenegro (6:2).
Fifth place could still be important with a view to participating in a qualifying tournament for the Olympic Games.
Irrespective of this, however, problems remain.
“You can still see a difference in terms of the speed of action and dynamics. We still need a bit there,” Gaugisch had analyzed after the 21:29 (9:13) against Olympic champion France on Tuesday, which relentlessly analyzed the weaknesses of the DHB selection disclosed. The German team made numerous simple mistakes. Too many to compete with the top teams.
Disastrous preliminary round
Quite a few may have wished for a larger development step after the commitment of hopeful Gaugisch. Even after the disastrous preliminary round, from which Germany took a mortgage of 0:4 points in the main round, the DHB team had only minimal chances of progressing.
The stated goal of the national coach is the Olympics anyway. In mid-April, Gaugisch had signed a contract until 2024, should the qualification for Paris succeed, this would be automatically extended by two more years – and then also include the home World Cup in winter 2025. But there is hardly any time, the DHB has some catching up to do.
“Need more experience”
“We need a lot more experience,” said sporting director Axel Kromer. This comes “of course also through quality”. Quality that the German team can hardly show at the moment. “We played against the Olympic champions and were shown that we don’t belong in the semi-finals yet,” said Kromer: “But we want to get there.”
“We all have the dream of winning a medal one day,” said backcourt player Xenia Smits. “The goal of knocking on the door at the top is still a bit too far away for us”. Since bronze at the 2007 World Cup, Germany has been waiting for a medal at a major tournament.
It seems as if Smits and Co. have to be patient.