Germany’s national handball team narrowly lost out at the European Championships Norway enforced. With the 30:28 (15:17) victory, the team led by national coach Alfred Gíslason defended their lead in the table and retained their chance of reaching the semi-finals.
With seven goals, Mario Grgić was the best German thrower. However, goalkeeper Andreas Wolff was outstanding with more than 20 saves.
Offensively, the German team had to struggle with major problems for a long time in front of more than 10,000 spectators in Herning, Denmark. “It was a lot of hard work again,” said Grgić on ZDF. He thanked goalkeeper Wolff, who kept the team in the game with breathtaking moves. It was “insane” how often Wolff saved the team, said Grgić. The German goalkeeper fended off a total of 22 shots from the Norwegian team led by superstar Sander Sagosen.
With the win, Germany now leads the group of six with six points ahead of Denmark and France (four each). Behind them are Norway and Portugal (two each) and Spain (zero). Only the top two finishers reach the semi-finals.
Coach Gíslason missed looseness
Wolff initially received little support from the German attack. There was a lack of precision at the front, in the first seven minutes of the game the German handball players missed four times and quickly fell behind 2:5 (10th). “Our problem is at the front, we don’t score enough goals,” complained coach Gíslason during the time-out and demanded “more looseness” from his team. In the second half, the DHB team also concentrated better at the front and turned things around, led by substitute Grgić.
With a win against world champion and Olympic champion Denmark on Monday, Germany would secure participation in the medal games before the end of the second phase of the tournament. The last opponent on Wednesday is defending champion France.
