A strong defensive performance and an outstanding goalkeeper – the German handball players laid their foundation for the rest of the European Championship with their opening victory over Switzerland.
By Robin Tillenburg (Düsseldorf)
It looked like the difficult game we feared. The DHB team’s defense didn’t really take action against Switzerland; the ball ran smoothly at the front, but several throws were missed and the Swiss goalkeeper Nikola Portner was immediately up to speed.
61 percent balls saved – Wolff outstanding
In the end, Portner had a catch rate of 35 percent. A rate of over 30 percent of balls saved is a decent proof of work for goalkeepers in handball. Anything closer to 40 percent falls into the category: very strong. But the number that flashed next to Andreas Wolff’s name at the end of the game when the “Man of the Match” was announced on the scoreboard made some of the 53,586 fans in the Düsseldorf Arena look twice: 61 percent. A fabulous performance that the German national goalkeeper had achieved.
In front of the world record crowd, Wolff had put not just one, but three exclamation points after his name and, above all, his fitness level. After his slipped disc in August 2023, the Industria Kielce goalkeeper had to struggle to get fit in time for the tournament. His spectacular saves, some of which were free throws from the Swiss, were all the more impressive.
“It was a really great performance, especially on defense,” said Wolff to the sports show. “We played a very strong defense, the boys were ready for the physical toughness of the Swiss team’s attack.”
Wolff brings the fans into the game – and with it his team
The stadium never cheered louder on this Wednesday evening than during Wolff’s actions and, driven by this, the German defense quickly shook off their nervousness. The inner block around Johannes Golla and Julian Köster were almost everywhere with their arms and, especially together with the half players, pushed the middle so well that the Swiss were hardly able to make a cleanly prepared throw. “That feels fantastic,” Wolff said of the backdrop. “I paused after the game to take it in because it’s unique to play in such an atmosphere. I could get used to it.”
Desiree Krause, sports show, January 10, 2024 11:05 p.m
Andy Schmid, Manuel Zehnder and Co. kept running, but again and again they got stuck or had to finish from unpromising positions. And when someone did have a reasonably good angle, the man with the number 33 stood there and put the next line on the statistics sheet in the box next to his name above which “Parade” was written.
Clueless Swiss against strong German cover
As the game went on, the Swiss seemed more and more at a loss – they didn’t manage to score for over a quarter of an hour in the second half. It was logical that the Germans were able to increase the result despite many changes to a level that looked very much like a “slap”. They didn’t shine that much at the front and missed a few chances, but because the defensive performance was at the top level, they achieved the second-highest European Championship victory of all time for a German men’s team.
The truth is that the Swiss couldn’t really live up to the expectations placed on them – but they also needed a German team that had proven to be very capable offensive artists like Schmid, Zehnder, Lenny Rubin and Co. didn’t even get to develop let.
The basis for the rest of the tournament has been laid
With this performance, the DHB team has laid a foundation for the coming weeks that can be built on in every respect. Knowing that you have (at least) one goalkeeper between the posts who can keep the team going at any time in every game should give the young team security – even against stronger opponents like France (January 16th, 8.30 p.m. live on ARD and on sportschau.de).
