The German handball juniors underlined their title ambitions at the U21 World Cup by reaching the quarter-finals early.
At the start of the main round, the still unbeaten and favored co-organizers of the World Cup happily prevailed against defending champion France on Sunday (June 25th, 2023) in Magdeburg with 30:29 (17:16) and thus already booked a place for the round of the top eight Thursday in Berlin.
In qualifying for the duels for the semi-finals, coach Martin Heuberger’s team, which started the second phase of the tournament with two points thanks to three preliminary round wins, benefited from Croatia’s previous 36:23 win against Tunisia. As a result, the World Cup runners-up from the Balkans, like the German team, have four points in their account before the duel with Heuberger’s players on Monday (8:30 p.m. / Eurosport). France and Tunisia are still without a point and can no longer displace the two top teams from the top two places.
Clear guidance given again and again
Against France, the German talents around their top player Renars Uscins set an exclamation mark early on with a four-goal lead, but allowed the “Equipe tricolore” to come back within a goal before the break. In a similarly negligent manner, Heuberger’s team even lost a lead of seven goals in the second round, but were ultimately able to celebrate a happy ending. The most successful Germans were the five-time scorers Justus Fischer (Hanover-Burgdorf) and Moritz Sauer (Potsdam).
The young Germans are aiming for their third title after triumphing at the 2009 World Cup in Egypt and two years later in Greece, and not just because of the home advantage. Even with these two title wins, Heuberger, who later also worked as a men’s national coach, sat on the bench with the talents.