Handball players bump their way through endurance test before home European Championships
The European Handball Championship kicks off at home next week. The Germans test their form against Portugal - and reveal weaknesses. However, a merciless debutant impresses in the laborious victory.
Bumpy endurance test before the home European Championships: Germany's handball players got themselves in the mood for the European Championships with a last-minute victory despite an inconsistent performance. Six days before the start of their medal hunt, the team of national coach Alfred Gislason fought their way to a 34:33 (18:14) win against Portugal, but still revealed some weaknesses in view of the opening game against Switzerland.
"I'm very unhappy that we completely lost the thread after the break," complained Gislason on the ARD microphone: "I would have liked more stability in defense."
The best German scorer in the first of two Portugal tests was Juri Knorr with six goals. The German team initially impressed in front of 4546 spectators in Flensburg with a varied offense, but the defense still had some coordination problems.
After the break, the game became a tight affair - also because the team missed too many shots in attack. One bright spot was Martin Hanne, who scored five goals on his international debut. Goalkeeper Andreas Wolff provided the decisive moment with a save around 20 seconds before the end of the game.
Wolff went six minutes without conceding a goal
The opportunity to do better will come quickly: the dress rehearsal for the European Championships in Germany (January 10-28) will take place on Saturday (6 p.m./ARD) in another clash with the 13th-placed team from the World Cup. The DHB men will play their opening match against the Swiss next Wednesday (20:45/ZDF and Dyn) in front of more than 50,000 spectators in Düsseldorf. Other opponents in preliminary round group A are North Macedonia (January 14/20:30/ZDF and Dyn) and record world champions France (January 16/20:30/ARD and Dyn).
"We want to play a very aggressive and agile defense and put a lot of pressure forward," said Gislason on the ARD microphone immediately before the Portugal game. The mood in the team after the two training sessions in Frankfurt and Brunsbüttel is "outstanding so far. Things are going extremely well in training."
Captain Johannes Golla and his teammates confirmed these impressions at the start. At the back, keeper Wolff went six minutes without conceding a goal, while playmaker Juri Knorr and youngster Julian Köster impressed up front with their wit and goal threat. Even a glitch with the hall clock, which caused a minute-long delay after five seconds, was unable to break the DHB team's concentration.
Debutant Hanne makes the most of his first contact with the ball
When the lightning-fast right winger Timo Kastening made it 9:5 with his third goal after a quarter of an hour, Gislason's facial features relaxed noticeably. From then on, the Icelander took advantage of the early lead and tried out a number of things. Sebastian Heymann and Philipp Weber were allowed to play in the backcourt, U21 world champion Justus Fischer in the circle - and Hanne, THE surprise in the German European Championship squad, also made his international debut. Remarkably, the 22-year-old scored his first international goal with his first touch of the ball to make it 15:10 (24').
Nevertheless, Gislason was not completely satisfied. "It's about the defense!", he shouted to his team in a timeout towards the end of the first half. 14 goals conceded at the break - that was clearly not just too much for the national coach. Germany were unable to get to grips with their defensive problems, and a turnover error led to a needless short-handed defeat. When Portugal had closed the gap to two goals, Gislason grumbled in the time-out: "We're far too static!" Portugal now kept within touching distance.
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Source: www.ntv.de
