In the “Hell of Herning”, as the giant hall in the Danish city is called, the German national players felt like they were in seventh heaven on Friday. The handball players jumped, danced in circles, laughed and had every reason to be exuberant. After all, they had beaten their long-time feared opponents Croatia 31:28 (17:15) and were the fourth selection from the German Handball Federation (DHB) to reach a European Championship final.
In 2004 and 2016 under the current Croatia coach Dagur Sigurdsson, they even celebrated winning the title at the end. If today’s national coach Alfred Gislason’s team on Sunday (6 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the European Handball Championship, on ZDF and on Dyn) in the final against hosts Denmark – which also beat Iceland 31:28 in the second semi-final – should appear similarly united in defense and attack as in their first competitive win against Croatia in six years, they don’t have to worry.
“I’m extremely proud of the boys for getting through this group of death and now being in the final. That’s a phenomenal achievement from everyone,” said Gislason on ARD. “Again a fantastic team performance,” emphasized Julian Köster after taking the winning selfie with his teammates. “The photo is now being put in many family chats,” said the man with the longest arms in the DHB team.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier also congratulated the team: “Congratulations on reaching the final. We are proud of you and keep our fingers crossed,” Steinmeier was quoted as saying on his Instagram account after the win against Croatia.
For the current, relatively young DHB squad, it will be the second major final within a year and a half after the Olympic silver medal in Lille. In Herning they will once again meet world champions, Olympic champions and hosts Denmark. Goalkeeper Andreas Wolff, Jannik Kohlbacher and Rune Dahmke have known what it feels like to be European champions for ten years. Back then they were one of the “Bad Boys” who surprisingly won the title.
Knorr shows understanding for the Croatians’ criticism
The questions from Friday about what the defenses would be like on both sides were partly answered before the game. Tom Kiesler, who blocked and tackled like no other in the DHB team in his first European Championship participation, did not recover from his gastrointestinal infection in time. Like two days earlier in the win against France, Gummersbach’s defensive colossus was unable to intervene. Jannik Kohlbacher started alongside Julian Köster and captain Johannes Golla in the inside block and, as usual, shared the work alternately and convincingly with Matthes Langhoff and Julius Fischer.
The Croatians, on the other hand, showed that their strength dwindled somewhat over the course of the encounter due to the change of location from Malmö to Herning. At first it seemed as if the energy had not been lost as Sigurdsson had feared in his angry speech the day before. But in the second half they showed a lot of heart, but their strength and concentration clearly decreased somewhat.
Juri Knorr showed understanding for Sigurdsson’s criticism after the game. “I fully support Dagur,” said the German playmaker: “He has raised many points on which I would only agree with him.” In his opinion, the Croatians were at a disadvantage because of the game plan. “Of course the forces play a role,” says Knorr.
Wolff once again extremely strong
The German wall, on the other hand, occasionally crumbled at the beginning, which the Croatians took advantage of, and they were in the lead for most of the first 22 minutes until the score was 13:12. But because Wolff was again extremely strong and brought hand or foot to the ball and a new attacker was always found at the front, the DHB team went into the break with a 17:15 lead. The often vaunted breadth of the DHB squad was evident in the semi-finals, where, unlike in some previous European Championship games, no individual stood out, but rather the stronger collective decided.
“It was a great team performance over 60 minutes,” said Lukas Zerbe, who was the DHB team’s best thrower with six goals: “We’re happy today, we’re recovering well and then we’re looking forward to the final.” The way they defended today, they could beat any team.
As with the two test match victories in Zagreb and Hanover shortly before the European Championships, the Germans had prepared themselves for an opponent who would present them with unpleasant tasks. And that’s how it happened at the beginning: the Croatians initially carried out their defensive tasks in an offensive manner. Marko Mamic tried to disrupt Juri Knorr’s circles early on. Germany used to deal with something like this rather badly than well, but on Friday they did pretty well: they forced the Croatians to abandon the attempt.
If Knorr couldn’t find a way through for himself or a teammate to pass, Fischer took over at the circle and Köster and Co. took over in the backcourt. It is also noticeable that the wingers Lukas Mertens and Lukas Zerbe were brought into play more often than in previous European Championship games. With success: Together they scored ten hits with only one failed attempt.
Two goals into the empty Croatian goal
The Croatians showed themselves to be unintentionally accommodating when they wanted to create a superiority and removed goalkeeper Dominik Kuzmanovic in favor of a seventh field player. This enabled the DHB selection to score two goals into the empty goal. They missed chances twice, also because Wolff only hit the Croatian post from his own goal. The Kieler was less annoyed about that than he was about the people in front of him when they reacted twice more slowly than the Croatians after hitting the crossbar, allowing them to score shots.
When Golla scored Knorr to take a six-goal lead (22:16) after 38 minutes, the semi-final seemed to be heading in a clear direction. The German defenders or keeper Wolff defused the Croatians’ throws, who only scored one goal in the first eight minutes of the second half. In the attack, the DHB selection did not set off fireworks like two days earlier against France. But the team, which Gislason set up and adjusted well, played quite solidly and pulled away a bit.
The fact that not all technical errors were immediately punished with a goal towards the end and that the Croatians only managed a maximum of three goals was mainly due to the famous Wolff, who was also voted “Player of the Match”. In the end, the goalkeeper was on cloud nine in the “Hell of Herning”.
The thirty-four-year-old also had to celebrate that with his 41st European Championship game he caught up with the previous record holder Klaus-Dieter Pedersen. He will even outdo him in the final – ideally with his second European title after 2016.
