Alfred Gislason was able to start at 1.07 p.m. Then came the news from the European handball association EHF that no other German player had been infected with the corona virus at the European Championships in Hungary and Slovakia. So the national coach had five hours to prepare his selection for the first main round game, undoubtedly the most important of the tournament so far. Without training, with virtual video analysis (the players were in their single rooms until they left the hall) and the requirement to integrate a few players who had traveled to the team and system at short notice.
The Icelander had to be happy to even have a full squad available. In the last preliminary round game against Poland, for example, there was only one regular goalkeeper in the squad in the nominated Jogi Bitter – the two regulars Andreas Wolff and Till Klimpke have been sitting isolated in their single rooms for some time, they are two of the eleven professionals infected so far. Actually, twelve players had been isolated, but Christoph Steinert received the message shortly before the start of the game that he had been falsely tested positive. Steinert hurriedly gathered his things in the hotel, then ran to the hall. The youngest volte of this so curious European championship.
The opponent at the start of the main round, at the end of which the two best-placed teams moved into the semi-finals, was defending champion Spain, who ultimately won the game clearly with 29:23. “We made too many mistakes,” said Gislason, “then you don’t stand a chance against a team like Spain.” The Iberians had walked through the preliminary round with three victories, which the German team had also achieved, which had made up for the disadvantage of the many failures with enormous fighting spirit and the will to win. Although the Spanish coach Jordi Ribera had to do without two important players in Joan Cañellas and Ian Tarrafeta, compared to Gislason he was able to fall back on a comparatively well-rehearsed team.
In contrast to the Germans, who minimized contacts given the uncertain situation, Ribera was able to train twice with his team. Despite everything, Spain’s captain Gedeon Guardiola had warned against an opponent “with a lot of physique, quality and ambition”. The Spanish defense specialist has been playing in the Bundesliga for ten years, so he knows the players inside out – and he was initially right.
The Germans can only keep up in the first half, then the Spaniards punish every mistake mercilessly
Because the German selection started again with a lot of momentum. Julian Köster, who played so carefree against Poland and was named Player of the Match, hit his first shots and helped the team level the game against the favorites in the first half. The DHB selection led 10:9, but the number of minor errors increased. And the Iberians are a team that tends to punish slight mistakes mercilessly. Gislason noticed that, took a time-out when they were 12:14 behind and warned his players not to go into the break with a major deficit.
National coach Alfred Gislason has little time to build up his players: Norway are already waiting for their next opponent on Friday.
(Photo: Marijan Murat / dpa)
That was still possible, but not much worked in the first ten minutes after the change. What was partly due to the quality of the opponent, especially goalkeeper Moreno Perez de Vargas drove the German throwers to despair. And then there were the long-awaited deficits: inaccuracies in the passing game, lack of agreement in defense, bad degrees. The more the German selection was reduced, the better the defending champion got into the game, who managed almost everything in the second 30 minutes. Against the ripped-off Spaniards, the newly completely reformed DHB selection, which would have preferred to postpone this game, came up against insurmountable limits for the first time.
Gislason used the game, which was hopeless from the middle of the second half, to give players who had been nominated to play, so goalkeeper Daniel Rebmann, Lukas Stutzke and David Schmidt made their European Championship debuts. Left winger Patrick Zieker attracted attention with four goals. Golla also scored four times, Köster three times.
Despite this clear defeat, the tournament is far from over for the Germans, because in addition to the sovereign Spaniards, who are to be regarded as the clear group favorites, the Germans are on two points level with Sweden and Russia. On Friday evening (8.30 p.m.) the German team will face Norway if there are no further incidents. After the defeat, the players immediately went to the single rooms to ensure that.
