Handball: German national team wins clearly against Austria

The German national handball team has also won the fourth qualifying game for the 2022 European Championship. The team of coach Alfreð Gíslason won against Austria 34:20 (19: 5). The game was also the dress rehearsal for the 2021 World Cup in Egypt, which begins next week. The German team will start the World Cup against Uruguay on Friday.

Gíslason changed his squad to four positions compared to last Wednesday’s first leg to give all players practice. Goalkeepers Johannes Bitter, Marcel Schiller, David Schmidt and Juri Knorr sat out, but Silvio Heinevetter, Marian Michalczik, Christian Dissinger and Antonio Metzner for his first international match were nominated. At the World Cup, the coaches can change their squad before each game, this measure was decided because of the high level of stress in the corona pandemic.

New middle block for the German team

After the cancellations of Patrick Wiencek, Hendrik Pekeler and Steffen Weinhold from Kiel, Gíslason wanted to play his defense in the two games against Austria. Johannes Golla and Sebastian Firnhaber form the new middle block, while the two players from Flensburg and Erlangen will play decisive roles at the World Cup. And in the first half, the defensive network worked very well in cooperation with goalkeeper Andreas Wolff. Austria did not score easy goals, the outsider only scored five goals in total.

However, the clear result and the good performance in defense should not be overrated – Austria is not among the world’s best in handball. Germany will definitely progress in the group with Uruguay, Hungary and Cape Verde, the difficult tasks then wait in the main round or at the latest from the quarter-finals. Against teams like Spain, Croatia, Norway or France, it will be much more difficult for Golla and Firnhaber.

Debutant Metzner best thrower

After the break, the German team in Cologne was much more cautious in front of empty spectators, Austria had already scored six goals after seven minutes. But that was less due to the defensive work, rather there were more ball losses on the offensive, which were punished with speed counter attacks.

In the end it was still a clear victory. Debutant Metzner was the best thrower with five goals in front of captain Uwe Gensheimer and Paul Drux (four each).