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EURO Cup: Denmark again too strong for German handball players

EURO Cup: Denmark again too strong for German handball players

The second showdown with the world champion ends with a clear bankruptcy for the team of national coach Alfred Gislason. Once again, the clear distance to the world leaders is revealed.

An outstanding Andreas Wolff was not enough: Germany’s handball players also lost the second duel with world champion Denmark and ten months before the home European Championship their limits were clearly shown.

Despite a world-class performance by goalkeeper Wolff, the DHB selection in Hamburg lost 21:28 (10:14). In front of 12,123 spectators, director Juri Knorr was the best scorer for the team of national coach Alfred Gislason with nine goals.

Second defeat against outstanding Danes

The German team, which, like at 23:30 in the first leg, had to do without the sick backcourt player Julian Köster, remains without a win in the EURO Cup. At the end of the competition, which serves to prepare for the 2024 European Championships, the DHB team will meet European champions Sweden and World Cup third-placed Spain at the end of April.

Before kick-off there was a minute’s silence for the victims of the shooting spree last Thursday in the Hanseatic city. The German team started with concentration and took a two-goal lead in the seventh minute. But then the mistakes multiplied. Lukas Mertens failed from the left winger, Johannes Golla missed a counterattack and Patrick Groetzki even threw wide of the goal from the right winger. The result was 9:5 for Denmark in the 19th minute.

The Danes didn’t even play with their best players. Simon Pytlick, who is moving to SG Flensburg-Handewitt in the Bundesliga for the new season, was not there. World champions Jacob Holm and Mads Mensah Larsen only sat on the bench. National coach Nikolaj Jacobsen had done without superstars like goalkeeper Niklas Landin, director Rasmus Lauge and captain Mikkel Hansen anyway.

Weak chance exploitation in the DHB team

During this phase, Germany remained without a goal of their own for twelve minutes. It was mainly thanks to Wolff’s nine saves, some of them spectacular, that the deficit didn’t get any bigger before the break. “We did a lot of things right in defense,” said DHB sports director Axel Kromer at half-time: “But it’s incredibly difficult to stop the nimble Danes.” In the German attack, Kromer primarily criticized the exploitation of chances.

At the beginning of the second half, thanks to Kai Häfner’s goal, Germany came within two goals again to make it 12:14 (33 rd ). But it was only a flash in the pan. After that, the Danish team also pulled away with the players from the second and third row and made it clear that the difference to the world top for the DHB team is still big. When Mathias Gidsel scored the empty German goal in the 49th minute to make it 23:15 for the guests, the decision had long been made.

Things got emotional after the final whistle of the game. After 175 international appearances, Johannes Bitter left the national team. “Every international match was something special for me,” said the 40-year-old goalkeeper of Bundesliga club HSV Hamburg before he left.

Source: Stern

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