The German national teams impressively qualified for the final round of the 2026 European Team Championship on Sunday evening. In the Staufenhalle in Kelkheim-Fischbach, both the women and men achieved a decisive victory.
For the German women, the decisive duel with Sweden turned into the expected thriller. In the end there was a hard-fought 4-1 win that made qualification perfect.
Isabel Lohau and Thuc Nguyen’s doubles were particularly spectacular, as they offered a real thriller against Tilda Sjöo and Elin Öhling. After fending off match point, they turned the game around and triumphed 21:23, 21:17, 22:20 – a victory that inspired the entire team
Katharina Nilges presented herself just as combatively in her individual. She was already well behind in the deciding set, but showed great nerve and ultimately won 23:21.
Men celebrate a smooth 5-0 victory over Belgium
Things were much less dramatic for the men, who achieved a commanding 5-0 win against Belgium. Matthias Kicklitz opened the match against Belgium’s number 1 Julien Carraggi with a strong performance and sent a clear signal – 21:15, 21:17.
The following games also went to the German team, which did not allow itself a phase of weakness and took the decisive step towards qualifying for the European Championship with a flawless result.
Head national coach Hannes Käsbauer was extremely satisfied:
“Our two top individuals, Yvonne Li and Matthias Kicklitz, got off to a great start here. The men’s team was very confident, while the women’s team had the expected thriller. The team performance, especially off the field, was really fun today and we can be really happy that we qualified with both teams.”
With two strong performances on the final day, the German teams crowned an outstanding qualifying weekend. Now the focus is on the 2026 European Team Championship finals, which will take place from February 11th to 15th in Istanbul, Türkiye.
All match results from the team European Championship qualification can be found here.
The other EM participants
In addition to Germany, the following nations also qualified:
Women: Denmark, France, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Ukraine and hosts Türkiye.
Men: Denmark, France, England, Finland, Spain, Sweden and hosts Türkiye.
