This time the great Danes were almost there. This time the Danes no longer had the anarchistic fun they had a year ago at the World Cup, when Mathias Gidsel, the superstar of world handball, mocked the German defense with his lightning-fast physical illusions and his Permag grin during a 40:30 victory sometimes seemed as if he was laughing his ass off at the stupid German professionals. This time they didn’t come under the Danish wheels like in the 2024 Olympic final, when a 26:39 score spoiled the silver medal win.
Suddenly the German team was no longer afraid of this legendary team, which goalkeeper Andreas Wolff calls “perhaps the best team in history.” On the third main round match day of the European Championship, an aggressive and tough German defense largely destroyed the desire of the Danish stars. For over 40 minutes, the guest presented himself as a mood killer for the predominantly Danish fans in the surging crowd of 15,000. The Danes kept getting bogged down in defense and were annoyed. Gidsel, the serpentine artist, was no longer smiling.
“We are fully there,” said Juri Knorr, the German playmaker from the Rhein-Neckar-Löwen, after the final whistle. “We were ready for the game.” Why did the result become clear and the German team lost with 26:31 (12:13) goals? Knorr smiled painfully and pointed his finger at the somewhat chubby young man who had also bought two throws from him and was now standing next to him in the mixed zone: Emil Nielsen. The Danish keeper saved 14 balls and was voted “Man of the Match”.
A pact with the posts
Nielsen had kept the world champions in the game – albeit in a pact with his posts, against which German balls crashed five times. And then the German team received two unnecessary time penalties when the score was 14:13, which Gidsel & Co. took advantage of. The Danish artists thus regained the fun in the game and now “overwhelmed” the Germans with their speed, as German goalkeeper David Späth put it, who Gíslason had put in the goal – a surprising decision after Andreas Wolff’s world-class performance against Norway.
However, the frustration among the German professionals was limited. This defeat doesn’t mean the end of Germany’s medal hopes. With now 6:2 points, national coach Alfreð Gíslason’s selection in the last main round game on Wednesday (6 p.m., live on ZDF) against France (4:4 points) is finally enough for a draw for the desired place in the semi-finals. We knew beforehand that if we lost to the hosts we would have to beat everyone else, said Gíslason casually. “That’s how it happened.”
And since a German defeat simply had to be taken into account, the national coach initially put Wolff, who was the only one to date with a world-class performance, on the bench in view of the dramatic group final against France. “Andi played a lot,” said Gíslason, adding that Wolff often didn’t start well against Denmark. On the other hand, with Späth we have a second world-class goalkeeper. He repaid his trust with fantastic saves in the first half.
The coach didn’t seem dissatisfied at all. In fact, the great potential of the German defense flashed for the first time in this tournament, they destroyed with great desire and passion. In addition, the strange blockade on the offensive had been broken. The attack suddenly played much more freely, said Gíslason. And if Mario Grgić, Julian Köster and Renārs Uščins hadn’t hit the post so often, the Danes might not have found their fun again.
