Red card – playmaker Witzke would have liked video evidence
Germany loses a high-class battle of nerves against Norway – the highlights in the video
The German handball players concede their first defeat against Norway and thus meet France in the quarter-finals. In the final minutes, the DHB team takes the lead for the first time, but still gives up the game. The highlights in the video.
In the first World Cup defeat, playmaker Luca Witzke sees a controversial red card. Germany is then out of step. The alleged culprit would have liked a video review by the two referees.
Et was the best phase from the point of view of the German team in the duel with Norway. The team of national coach Alfred Gislason had always been behind, but now the first lead by pivot Jannik Kohlbacher had succeeded – 25:24. Alone: It shouldn’t be enough for the national team, which lost 26:28 (16:18) in the end and thus lost the first game at the Handball World Championship in Poland and Sweden.
A sticking point was a controversial red card against Luca Witzke. The German playmaker hit Norway’s right winger Kevin Gulliksen in the foot during a defensive action. A two-minute time penalty, many of the German fans at the Sopek in Kattowitz thought, would be an appropriate punishment. But the two referees Boris Milosevic and Matija Gubica (Croatia) decided on a red card.
In handball, unlike in football, you can add a player to the full number of professionals after two minutes, but the game was over for the culprit Witzke in the 54th minute – he was not allowed to continue. And the action brought Germany visibly out of step.
“No intention”
Witzke himself would have preferred a different decision by the two referees. “I had the feeling that I was already taking a step, but then stumbled or slipped slightly,” he said after the final whistle of the game. “I would have liked it to be looked at again, because I don’t think I have any intentions now. I think that two minutes would have been justified. In the end, that’s what they decided, it’s the way it is now, I can’t change it.”
It was a used evening for Germany’s playmaker Luca Witzke
Source: dpa
And so he looked at what, in his eyes, had been good, other than the red card, in the duel with the two-time World Cup runners-up in 2017 and 2019. “We delivered a great game for 52 minutes, but in the end we made a few mistakes too much, discard a few balls too many. Then it’s just not enough, then Norway is too strong at the end. That’s just the few goals difference today.”
That’s a bit frustrating, given that the quarter-finals have already been determined – Germany meets France on Wednesday – but it’s bearable. “Of course we really wanted to win and continue the run,” explained the game designer. “But I think we can still be proud of what we have achieved here so far. We’re in the quarterfinals. That’s why it’s time to sleep on it and start the journey to Gdansk tomorrow. We have to look ahead, nothing happened, we only lost one game. Now the knockout games are starting, this is where the real fun begins.”
