Opening game of the European Handball Championship: Germany defeats Austria

ZTwo minutes before the end, the main actor of the evening took matters into his own hands: the stubborn Austrians had actually worked their way up to three goals again, Sebastian Frimmel, the best shooter of the evening with nine goals and blessed with plenty of self-confidence, stepped to the seven-meter line for the penalty throw. But Wolff built his almost two meter tall body into an insurmountable wall and parried the penalty throw. This broke the resistance of the Austrians and Germany celebrated a successful debut in the European Championship tournament with the 30:27 victory, where the goal of the DHB selection is at least to reach the semi-finals.

Coach Alfred Gislason was satisfied with the result, but his facial expressions said otherwise. Because the Austrians, something of a feared opponent of the Germans not only since the draw at the last European Championship, put them in trouble in the final phase after a convincing performance at times. The national coach didn’t want to criticize the defense, which was “very strong”, but from his point of view the attack left a lot to be desired: “We made too many mistakes, sometimes not hitting the empty goal, so we really have to improve.”

The Austrians once again turned out to be the unpleasant opponents, whom the outstanding Wolff had described before the game as “anti-handball that nobody wants to see”. A statement that activated the last remaining motivation in the opponent, as his counterpart Constantin Möstl, who also put in a very strong performance, noted before the game.

The Austrians showed what the German goalkeeper meant by that after the quick 1:4 deficit against the DHB team: coach Iker Romero, world champion in 2005, took Möstl off the field and brought in the seventh field player. This is his preferred means of throwing a seemingly superior opponent out of rhythm. From then on, the Austrians slowed down the game and played long attacks, which cost the opponent nerves and required patience, both of which the German defense did better and better as the game went on. Because the Austrians also knew how to put up a tough defense, it remained a low-scoring game, with the two goalkeepers being the dominant players. As is well known, the seventh field player carries the risk of missing a goal, but the German throwers, including Wolff, missed the opponent’s empty box too often.

Group opponents Spain also have problems in their opening win against Serbia

Despite the missed chances, the favorites continued to pull away, which was due to the two big plus points of this young German team: On the one hand, captain Johannes Golla and the Gummersbach national team novice Tom Kiesler formed an outstanding defense in the inner block, which concealed the attack, which had stalled at times at the start of the game. And then the Germans were able to bring the offensive into play better thanks to their broad squad, which was mainly due to the nimble playmaker Juri Knorr, who initially remained on the bench, and European Championship debutant Miro Schluroff.

At the break the DHB team led 12:8, remained confident after the change, but failed to pull the Austrians’ tooth early. “Ten minutes before the end and five goals ahead, we failed to finally draw the game,” Gislason complained on ARD. In addition to his defense, the Icelander also received special praise from captain Johannes Golla, the most successful thrower with seven goals, as well as the wingers Lukas Zerbe (6 goals) and Lukas Mertens (2). The tournament flow that will carry the team to the semi-finals still needs to be found: “There are a lot of things we still need to do better.”

In the second game of Group A, two-time European champions Spain, as expected, had the upper hand with 29:27 goals. In a game that was controlled by the Iberians for a long time, things got tight again in the final phase, but ultimately the not always convincing Magdeburg goalkeeper Sergey Hernandez secured the Spaniards a successful tournament debut. On Saturday, Germany will face Serbia in the second group game.