Germany’s handball women continued their impressive winning streak at the home World Cup and reached the quarter-finals early.
Thanks to the clear 36:18 (16:6) against Montenegro on Thursday, the Germans are already group winners one game before the end of the main round. In front of 9,000 spectators in the atmospheric Westfalenhalle in Dortmund, the team from the German Handball Federation (DHB) once again showed a strong performance.
This means that Germany will probably avoid Norway in the quarter-finals – provided the top favorite wins their main round group. There, Brazil is currently second in the group behind Norway and therefore Germany’s possible opponent in the quarter-finals on Tuesday.
Dream start for Germany
After the German team had had a mixed start against the Faroe Islands two days earlier, things could hardly have gone better against Montenegro. From the start, the opponents were driven to desperation with their strong defensive work, hardly leaving any gaps and repeatedly intercepting balls. And if a ball did get through, goalkeeper Katharina Filter was there.
On the other side, the goals came hesitantly at first, but from the 5th minute onwards they came like a conveyor belt. The result was a 9-0 lead with four goals from Jenny Behrend alone. Only after two timeouts and a quarter of an hour of play was Montenegro successful for the first time thanks to Dijana Trivic.
Goalkeeper Filter towers over
However, this did not change the balance of power; Germany remained the clearly dominant team with an outstanding goalkeeper. In the 26th minute, Filter saved a seven-meter shot – it was her seventh save in eleven throws, which meant an outstanding rate of 64 percent.
Katharina Filter celebrates against Montenegro
Towards the end of the first half the offense weakened a bit, but the 16:6 score at halftime was still a surprise. Montenegro is no stranger to women’s handball, won the European Championship title and Olympic silver in 2012 and won European Championship bronze in 2022. The best World Cup placement so far was 5th place in 2019.
Nina Engel Top scorer
But Germany currently has the better handball players, and that was also evident in the second half. Although national coach Markus Gaugisch’s team no longer played intoxicated, they played disciplined and consistent. The lead always remained in double digits and grew slowly but steadily.
The victory was never in danger, the hits were spread widely with Nina Engel as the top shooter (6 goals). The outstanding goalkeeper Filter (48 percent catch rate) also showed throwing qualities and hit the empty opponent’s goal three times.
Fifth clear victory
The impression was confirmed that the route to the quarter-finals at this World Cup is exceptionally easy for hosts Germany and that the DHB team is also doing impressively well. “I’ve never seen the team so focused”Gaugisch had already said before the Montenegro game.
Iceland, Uruguay, Serbia, Faroe Islands, now Montenegro – no previous opponent in the preliminary and main rounds has been able to pose a threat to Germany. The last main round game against Spain on Saturday (6 p.m.) no longer plays a role.