Handball World Cup: Germany easily wins against Tunisia – continued concern for Knorr

The travel planning for Oslo is ready. On Sunday, at 1 p.m., the charter plane will take off from the civilian military airport Midtjylland Airport in Karup and, together with the Danish team, will head over to Norway. The flight only takes 45 minutes, which is significantly faster than one of the numerous ferry connections between Denmark and Norway. The German delegation didn’t have to worry about anything, the flight was organized by the International Handball Federation (IHF) – a small concession. If this handball World Cup is already being played in three countries, the teams should at least get from A to B in a relaxed manner.

The German team has two and a half days to acclimatize in Oslo before the quarter-finals on Wednesday, which is also unusual. The teams never have so much break in the strict rhythm of a World Cup. This is a very welcome interruption, especially for the Germans: a significant part of the team is groaning under the strain, injuries and infections. It is not certain who will be able to play in Oslo on Wednesday. Every day can be valuable.

National coach Alfred Gislason hopes above all that middle man Juri Knorr will get healthy again. As against Italy, Knorr sat out the last main round game on Saturday evening against Tunisia (31:19), which was unimportant in the table, due to illness. He left the team hotel in Silkeborg, Denmark and traveled to his hometown of Flensburg to seek medical advice. There is talk of chest pain, sore throat and breathing problems. Rune Dahmke and Lukas Stutzke (infections) also stayed in the hotel. For Franz Semper, the World Cup is over anyway with a muscle injury.

Gislason can rest players like Golla, Wolf, Uscins and Köster against Tunisia

According to the German Handball Association (DHB), Knorr’s return to the team for the quarter-finals is possible in principle. In the event that Knorr continues to be unavailable, Gislason has taken precautions and nominated Marian Michalczik (TSV Hannover-Burgdorf). He is a different type of middle man than Knorr, but he knows the game system and can also be used in the middle block in defense. Against Tunisia, Michalczik got involved right away, stood stable in the inner block with Justus Fischer and scored his first World Cup goals in attack.

Gislason took the opportunity to rest some heavily burdened players such as Johannes Golla (in his 100th international match), Renars Uscins and Julian Köster, but Marko Grgic (eleven goals) got just as much playing time in the backcourt as pivot Fischer. And in goal, David Späth parried one Tunisian throw after another. “The defense was great today, it was a lot of fun,” said Späth on ZDF. The Tunisians proved that they are rightly at the bottom of the main round group with no points. Although the German players made a significant number of technical errors, they took a ten-goal lead by half-time. “We can go to Oslo with a broad chest,” said Grgic in his conclusion.

In the quarter-finals it will be much more difficult for the German team. It is very likely that the opponent on Wednesday will be Portugal. The Portuguese only need to win the final game against Chile on Sunday to finish top of the group; the Chileans should not represent a real obstacle in this regard. Brazil would advance to the quarterfinals as second in the group. On the other hand, the co-favorites Sweden, Spain and Norway are all out.