After the EM humiliation, national coach Henk Groener was at a loss. Then he said what everyone had seen anyway. “It was a handball lesson that we got today,” said the Dutchman after the 23:42 (14:22) against Norway. A German women’s team had never lost as high as against the record European champions on Saturday evening in a European Championship finals.
Although the selection of the German Handball Federation (DHB) has the entry into the main round in Denmark still in their own hands, this defeat will leave its mark. “We didn’t manage to get Norway under control at any stage of the game. Then such a result is fair,” admitted Groener. After surviving the corona infection, he only joined the German team a few hours before kick-off. Now he is in demand as a crisis manager. “What happened today definitely has to be dealt with,” demanded external player Antje Lauenroth after the worst German performance in recent years. Shooting star Emily Bölk said: “You can lose against Norway, but not in this way. It wasn’t our best day. But we’ll get up again.”
With four hits each, Bölk and Xenia Smits were the best throwers of the DHB women who had won their opening game against Romania on Thursday (22:19). After the performance against Norway, there is no need to talk about the hoped-for medal. In the final game in its preliminary group D against Poland, Germany must try to reach the main round; only under certain circumstances could one defeat be enough to advance. The three best teams in each of the four groups of four move on to the next tournament phase.
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