At the end of the preliminary round, the European Handball Championship experiences its first sensation. Portugal defeated the Olympic champions from Denmark, putting the host country in a state of shock and is now the German team’s next opponent.
Portugal’s players jumped across the field like little children, hugging each other again and again and showing facial expressions somewhere between pride and amazement. They had just achieved one of the biggest sensations of the European Handball Championship, which had been running for almost a week: they had defeated the Olympic champion and world champion from Denmark in their own hall, the Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning. A real coup – and a shock for the top favorite from the host country.
The great contender for winning the gold medal revealed a strange number of problems at 29:31 (11:12) in front of 15,000 fans – both at the back and in front. Denmark was never able to put up a robust bulwark on defense, and an unusually large number of opportunities went unused on offense.
Even when Denmark dropped goalkeeper Emil Nielsen in favor of a seventh outfield player to attack during the second half, nothing changed. Their otherwise feared fast game in the majority with breakthroughs to the circle or outside only worked to a limited extent on Tuesday evening. “The performance wasn’t good enough. It was only 80 percent. We can’t accept that. We had no momentum throughout the game,” said world handball player Mathias Gidsel afterward, disappointed.
Chance for revenge
Denmark’s bankruptcy now also has an impact on the Germans’ next opponents. At the start of the main round it is not against the team around Gidsel and Co. as expected, but first against the southern Europeans. On Thursday (3:30 p.m., Dyn/ARD and in the WELT live ticker), national coach Alfred Gislason’s selection will have the opportunity to take revenge for the painful exit from the World Cup a year ago in Norway. At that time, Germany lost to the Portuguese in the quarter-finals 30:31 after extra time and had to travel home. The last time the two teams faced each other at a European Championship finals was in 2020. At that time, Germany won the game for fifth place with 29:27.
After the duel with Portugal, it’s against Norway on Saturday (8.30 p.m.) before the two most difficult tasks await Gislason’s men: next Monday (8.30 p.m.) the opponent is Denmark and at the end of the main round it’s against France on Wednesday (6 p.m.).
“Every opponent who comes now is very strong,” said Gislason about the difficult program for his selection in the second phase of the tournament. And team manager Benjamin Chatton promised handball crime thrillers in the style of earlier “Hitchcock classics every two days” late on Tuesday evening. The high level of the participants makes “our main round group not only probably the most difficult main round in many years, but also the absolute group of death”.
Like Germany, the Portuguese and French also start the race for a place in the semi-finals, which the two best teams in the group reach, with 2-0 points each. The third-placed team plays for fifth place. “These will be incredibly tough tasks,” said Captain Johannes Golla.
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