Germany showed a weak performance against Serbia at the European Handball Championship, which was also garnished by a mistake by the national coach. Alfred Gislason prevents the equalizer, but takes the blame.
Almost every German player who walked through the mixed zone of the Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning after the duel with Serbia was marked by a little shock. About the fact that the German selection had given up a clear 17:13 half-time lead and is now under a lot of pressure after 27:30 to even reach the main round of the European Handball Championship in Denmark, Sweden and Norway.
One scene in particular required clarification: the unfortunate timeout by national coach Alfred Gislason, which was triggered in the middle of playmaker Juri Knorr’s goal – it would have been 26:26. According to the video images, the two Hungarian referees Adam Biro and Oliver Kiss decided that the red buzzer on the sideline was triggered very shortly before Knorr’s goal. So no goal, instead a time out for the Germans. It was the low point of a completely lousy second half from the German perspective in the 58th minute.
After the final whistle, the bank boss took the blame straight away: “We score a goal at minus one, especially when I take a timeout, which is of course fatal from my point of view and is entirely on me,” Gislason explained his faux pas afterwards. He received support from his players. “The time-out was appropriate for the game. But that wasn’t the point. That’s what happens,” said the bereaved Knorr.
Captain Johannes Golla also defended his coach. The circle player spoke of a very annoying situation two minutes before the end, but it was not decisive for the game. “Alfred wanted to take the timeout before the timeout came. He actually caught a good moment. Nobody could have predicted that Juri would intuitively come in at exactly that moment. He immediately apologized for it during the timeout,” Golla reported.
Now the end is imminent
And Miro Schluroff, one of the few bright spots for the Germans, didn’t want to place the blame solely on Gislason: “No blame on the coach, that can always happen,” said the half-left winger from VfL Gummersbach. Somehow the scene fit into the damned second half.
Germany now faces the difficult task of winning the final group game against Spain on Monday (8.30 p.m., ZDF/Dyn) by at least three goals in order to avoid early elimination and thus a minor catastrophe. A Herculean task against the previous league leaders in Season A. “We have to do everything we can to get it done,” said Gislason.
“We know that this is the most difficult task we have. So far the Spaniards have shown themselves to be the strongest team in this group. We now have to beat the Spaniards by three goals – which is anything but easy. We have to do that if we don’t want to be thrown out.”
