Handball European Championship: No European Championship miracle: handball players are defeated by Norway

Despite the lack of a European Championship miracle, Germany’s handball players left the parquet with their heads held high. After the 27:32 (13:19) defeat against Norway, the DHB women still have to wait for their first European Championship medal since 1994. But the overall courageous performance in the duel with the Olympic champion and record European champion gave us courage for the future.

“When you’re clearly behind against Norway so quickly, the danger of a double-digit defeat is always there. That’s why I’m happy with how the team found their way to act against this force. They played courageously, creatively and flexibly after the change.” said national coach Markus Gaugisch.

However, due to the third tournament defeat, the DHB selection lost the last theoretical chance of reaching the semi-finals and is now even in danger of missing the minimum target of top 8. “That’s where we want to go,” said Gaugisch, setting the goal for the European Championships.

The DHB team has 2:6 points and can therefore no longer reach one of the top two places in Group II. Norway (8:0) and the Netherlands (6:2) are unassailable ahead of the German team, which would even slip to fifth place if another defeat against Slovenia on Wednesday and could therefore, in the best case scenario, finish ninth in the European Championship. “We definitely want to win the game,” said Gaugisch.

In front of 2,677 spectators in Vienna, Alina Grijseels, Annika Lott, Viola Leuchter and Alexia Hauf were the best throwers for the DHB selection with four goals each, which won silver, the only European Championship medal to date, at the premiere 30 years ago in their own country. The last medal at a major tournament to date was bronze at the 2007 World Cup.

DHB team quickly lost the battle

The German team, which had to do without the ill left winger Antje Döll at short notice, was only able to stand up to the tournament favorites in the first five minutes. Then Norway moved from 2:2 to 7:2 with a 5:0 run.

Gaugisch followed the nervous and flawed performance of his protégés, gesticulating wildly on the sidelines. But that didn’t help, nor did swapping the entire back row after about 15 minutes. The DHB women hardly found any solutions in attack against the physically strong defense of the Scandinavians.

Norway is superior in all respects

The German team also rarely had access to defense. The result was a seven-goal deficit (5:12) midway through the first half. Although the DHB selection didn’t let themselves down, they came a little closer again thanks to a 3-0 run. But the hot gold contender didn’t allow anything more. By the break, Norway had moved back to six goals.

The highlight from a German perspective was provided by backcourt player Viola Leuchter, who scored with a direct free throw at the end of the first 30 minutes to bring the score to halftime. After the change, Germany kept trying and at least resisted it combatively. “We reacted, that’s important,” said backcourt player Xenia Smits. “I don’t think they played smoothly.”

However, the DHB selection was no longer able to seriously endanger the nine-time European champions. The burden from the weak first half was too great. Germany came up again in the final phase, but in the end they lost, as they did against the Netherlands (22:29) and Denmark (22:30). “I think we were able to annoy them a little,” summed up goalkeeper Katharina Filter.