EThere is this obscure equation, no one knows who did it for the first time, but it has certainly been used several times in the past few days. Erik Wudtke, the assistant coach of the German national team, also did the math before Monday’s game: you win one out of ten games against the Danes. The good thing about it? You don’t know which one. Clearly it is less an empirical hypothesis than a hopeful assumption, or the Danes did know it: not this time. The selection of the German Handball Association (DHB) lost the game against the world champion and Olympic champion 26:31 on Monday evening – and thus missed the first opportunity to advance early to the semi-finals. The Danes have now done that.
A draw would have been enough for the Germans, because in the second game of the group game day, the Spaniards, who had no points until then and had already been eliminated, had done the DHB team a favor by defeating the French with 36:32. The defending champion remains with four plus points in the table of the main round group 1 at this European Handball Championship. Like the Danes, Germany have collected six points, so a draw would be enough to reach the knockout round of the last four.
Opinion
:It is legitimate to question Gislason. For now he answered correctly
A complicated task, but not a hopeless one, says national coach Alfred Gislason: “In my view, the French are the second-best team in the tournament, so we have to play a great game for 60 minutes.” The first 40 minutes of the Denmark game gave him confidence: “If we go into the game highly motivated and without fear, and the defense is as strong as it was in the first half, then we can play an outstanding game.” What was necessary against the European champions, who for their part did not give a frightening performance in the defeat against the strong Spaniards.
If you read between the lines of what the coach and players said, this constellation was probably in the back of their minds. As a precautionary measure, Gislason took his two strained and battered wingers out of the game; he explained that he needed them to be at their best on Wednesday. Also
The Danes were different, and the DHB selection gave them a hard time with a strong performance in the first half. The defense in particular knew how to stop the Danes’ enormous speed play and force them into positional play. Mathias Gidsel can never be completely tamed there, but he did much better against his congenial partner Simon Pytlick, which was also due to David Späth’s saves, who surprisingly stood in goal for Andreas Wolff, who had been so excellent of late.
The German attackers just failed to take full advantage of the chances, which partly had to do with bad luck. Marko Grgic, for example, thundered the ball several times with immense force into the Danish goal. An example was the seven-meter penalty from Nils Lichtlein, who also jumped back into the field from the inside post and prevented the score from being equalized at 13:13 at the break. Especially in the second half, the lack of opportunity conversion was down to the Danish goalkeeper; Emil Nielsen was slowly getting into his gala form, which he actually always shows off.
Then followed two quick two-minute penalties, one of which was excessively imposed by the referee against Marko Grgic, and a resulting double majority for the favorite. The Danes usually exploit such opportunities with ruthless efficiency, including this evening. The world champion got into his tempo game and from then on, as so often, was unstoppable. The perfidious thing about this team is that every opponent knows exactly what is coming, but cannot prevent it. The ball circulated in the backcourt with incredible speed and precision until either Gidsel or Pytlick, who each scored eight goals each, found a gap. Or poorly prepared throws ended up in the hands of Nielsen, who immediately accelerated the ball from behind so that it landed even faster in the opponent’s goal via the fast middle.
:Schedule of the 2026 European Handball Championship: All games in the main round
24 teams are fighting for the title at the 2026 European Handball Championships. Germany is in the main round and won the first two games. All groups, dates and games at a glance.
Only the Danish team can play this risky, high-speed handball to perfection
As simple as it sounds, only the Danish team can play this risky, high-speed handball to perfection, and the Germans had to realize that once again. So now the second match point to move into the final round against the French, an opponent who appears to be defeatable. And who knows, theoretically, i.e. purely mathematically, there could be another meeting with the Danes in the final.
The last German victory in this duel was ten years ago, but since then the two national teams have only faced each other six times. There are still four attempts left to prove Erik Wudtke’s calculation.
