Thanks to the next success, the German handball players are on a direct course towards the main round at the European Championship. The team of national coach Alfred Gislason beat Austria 34:29 (15:16) on Sunday evening and thus has the perfect balance of 4:0 points after the first two games. In front of 1,485 spectators, right winger Timo Kastening was the top scorer with nine goals for the German team, which will also meet Poland in the final preliminary round game on Tuesday evening (6 p.m. / ZDF) in Bratislava.
But the second win at the tournament in Slovakia and Hungary was also hard work. Again, the DHB selection had slight teething problems, but this time it wasn’t Till Klimpke’s fault. Gislason once again trusted the young keeper from HSG Wetzlar in the starting line-up, while Andreas Wolff sat on the bench for almost the entire game.
Very strong in the German goal this time: Goalkeeper Till Klimpke.
(Photo: Marijan Murat / dpa)
And this time the plan worked differently than at the start of the tournament against Belarus (33:29). The 23-year-old showed strong saves throughout the game, and backcourt player Sebastian Heymann also found his way into the game much better than last thanks to early goals. Nevertheless, it was initially tight. After Julius Kühn’s positive corona test, Gislason realized early on that his team would lack throwing power from the backcourt. In addition, Austria’s 39-year-old goalkeeper Golub Doknic got off to an extremely successful start in the evening. The veteran fended off attempts by Kastening and Co. to throw several times, and even Marcel Schiller, who was so accurate against Belarus, was surprisingly unable to convert his first two seven-metre throws.
Only at the end of the game does the German team pull away from the outsider
The Austrians were in the lead at the break – also because there was a problem on the defensive again. “In defense we had problems in the inner block and we weren’t that effective in the end. We have to be more confident there,” said DHB sports director Axel Kromer at half-time on ARD. Or perhaps there was a lack of routine. Young and wild, that’s how you could describe the newly formed German team.
In contrast to the success at the start, Gislason even gave significantly more tournament newcomers the chance against the Austrians: Luca Witzke, Lukas Mertens or even second division professional Julian Köster came to their first minutes in the European Championship, who made a short-term appointment for Kühn and also played in the 2nd Bundesliga. League active Hendrik Wagner, on the other hand, has not yet been in the hall.
Despite the lack of routine, the DHB selection increased. The defense was more stable, and the inclusion of Christoph Steinert proved to be a stroke of luck. The professional from HC Erlangen is already 31 years old, but he is also playing his first major tournament – and so far with a carefree attitude that not only the national coach enjoys. Thanks to the accuracy of Steinert and Kastening and Klimpke’s strong goalkeeper performance, the DHB selection slowly pulled away.
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