European Championship main round: No European Championship coup: handball women lose to Denmark

Fought well, hoped for a long time and clearly lost in the end: Despite a courageous performance, the German handball players missed the hoped-for European Championship coup against title contenders Denmark. The team of national coach Markus Gaugisch lost to the Olympic bronze medalist in the second main round game with 22:30 (13:15) and now has 2:4 points and no longer has a realistic chance of making it to the semi-finals.

In front of 4,025 spectators in Vienna, circle runner Lisa Antl was the best German thrower with four goals. The next opponent of the DHB selection, which was only able to challenge the favorites for 40 minutes and collapsed in the final phase, is Olympic champion Norway on Monday. At the end of the second phase of the tournament there will be a duel with Slovenia.

For the first time in the tournament, Viola Leuchter was included in the German squad. The 20-year-old backcourt player from German champions HB Ludwigsburg had to watch the first four games due to illness and initially only sat on the bench.

A quick three-goal deficit

The German team started nervously. Only one of the first six attacks was successful. The result was a quick three-goal deficit (1:4). Unlike the bitter 19:34 defeat in the preparation for the European Championship, the DHB women were not unsettled by the false start.

After eleven minutes, Leuchter arrived, who was unimpressed by two missed throws in her first two attempts and subsequently created more of a goal threat. Goalkeeper Katharina Filter, in particular, provided important support in this phase, keeping her team in the game with some brilliant saves. In the middle of the first half everything was open again at 7:7.

“We have to keep the pressure up, then even a world-class team like Denmark makes mistakes,” Gaugisch said before the game. And he was right. The DHB team increasingly caused problems for last year’s World Cup third place and took the lead for the first time just ten minutes before the break at 9:8.

DHB team only equal until half time

Germany were now on an equal footing, but lost a few unnecessary balls towards the end of the first half. After 30 minutes there was a two-goal deficit on the scoreboard. Nevertheless, the DHB women came out of the locker room with a lot of momentum and quickly equalized.

But then the sixth place in the World Cup had a weak phase, which the favorite took advantage of. When the German team failed to score for more than five minutes, Denmark pulled ahead to four goals (23:19) for the first time. A small preliminary decision.

The DHB selection fought doggedly to catch up, but it was no longer successful. Rather, the Danes continued to pull away because Gaugisch’s protégés rarely found solutions in attack and missed too many chances.