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Eliminated at the Handball World Cup: Gislason draws a mixed conclusion

GRepay, Gislason! The national coach took it with humor that the moderator of the press conference didn’t know what to do for a moment when she should introduce him. The names of the French participants, Luka Karabatic and Guillaume Gille, came easily to her lips, she faltered with Luca Witzke, and then, well, the gentleman on her left had to give her a short “Gislason”. jumps help.

He’s not a nobody in the world of handball, but at least there were a few friendly words from the other side for the Germans who want to be someone in this sport again. “Congratulations to Germany for this tournament,” said Luka Karabatic, the French captain, “we had to play our best handball,” and his national coach Gille, who himself was a player in Germany for ten years, spoke of a “complicated game” for his Team.

“Victory was deserved”

However, it was only really complicated for the French for the first forty minutes or so. After that, “Les Experts” made a very clear thing out of this World Cup quarter-finals, 35:28 it was at the end in Gdansk, after a 16:16 at the break – and because the Germans even scored four goals themselves during the first 30 minutes had been in front with a score of 11:7 (15 th ) and also had the chance to pull away to three in the second, that was always a reason for anger and dissatisfaction for Gislason and his team. “The win was deserved, but not to this extent,” grumbled the national coach.

The reasons, the Icelander made no secret of this, lay with his team, which was becoming increasingly negligent in attack – even if the (second) French goalkeeper Remi Desbonnet played his part and the German throwers with 14 saves in 30 throws almost to the point brought despair.

The matter was “double-edged”, Gislason found, that it looked so good for 40 minutes against the Olympic champion and record world champion, makes him “proud”, but then the national coach was quickly angry again about the many bad degrees and fundamental deficits that are outside of his sphere of influence.

With the depth of the French squad, for example, and the insufficient opportunities for change that are available to him. Specifically, Gislason missed relief in the inner block, where the young Julian Köster had to play a lot, maybe too much at this World Cup, and there was no alternative for Johannes Golla, who was the best German thrower against France with six goals. At the end of the day, playmaker Juri Knorr’s wear and tear was becoming more and more noticeable, physically but certainly also mentally: one person alone cannot shoulder so much, no matter how great his talent.

In this context, Gislason quarreled more than casually with the game plan. The national coach was annoyed that the French had two days off after the last main round game, while his Germans only had one. Gislason said he didn’t want to sugarcoat anything, but that was a “big factor”. Gislason expressly did not show himself as a friend of the model of a World Cup in two countries, which would result in complications with the game and travel plans.

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