Women’s European Championship: Good start to the European Championship: Handball women celebrate victory against Ukraine

Germany’s handball players exuberantly celebrated their perfect start to the European Championship and beamed with joy and posed for a winner’s photo. With the clear 30:17 (15:9) against Ukraine, national coach Markus Gaugisch’s team immediately took the lead in Group F, which they want to maintain until the end of the preliminary round.

“We wanted to keep under 20 goals conceded, and we managed to do that. It was a confident opening win. We want to take the things that went well with us and sharpen the others. Then it’ll be fine,” said Gaugisch, summing up the first 60 minutes of the XXL finals with 24 teams for the first time.

In front of 2,437 spectators in Innsbruck, co-captain Alina Grijseels with six goals and pivot Lisa Antl (5) were the best throwers for the DHB selection, who delivered a convincing performance after initial difficulties. “We are happy and happy that we won the game with such clarity and had a good start to the European Championship. That is always important,” said Grijseels.

Key game on Sunday

The supposedly decisive game for group victory is already on Sunday. Then it’s against the Netherlands, fifth in the World Cup, who also started the tournament successfully with a 27:25 against Iceland. “This is a key game,” co-captain Emily Bölk explained before the tournament. “We will do everything we can to win,” promised goalkeeper Sarah Wachter.

In the duel with the Orange selection, the DHB team has to act even more consistently. Overall, the performance against Ukraine gave us courage for the tasks ahead. “We implemented a lot of what we set out to do. We defended aggressively, scored easy goals and dominated for over 60 minutes,” said pivot Julia Behnke.

The German team had to do without backcourt player Viola Leuchter for a short time, who was out due to illness. Nina Engel played for them and contributed four goals to the victory in her fifth international match.

Changeable performance in the first half

The favored DHB team, which had two clear successes against Ukraine in the European Championship qualification, quickly led 3-0. But as was the case during the arduous dress rehearsal against Austria, the first mistakes soon began to creep in. Slight ball losses opened the door for the opponent to enter the game.

At 6:5, Gaugisch took his first time out, during which he warned his protégés with clear words. However, the German team’s game initially didn’t get any better. The DHB women especially sinned at the end, failing more and more often due to the Ukrainian goalkeeper Viktoriia Saltaniuk and remaining without a goal for more than five minutes in the middle of the first half.

At least the defense, with Sarah Wachter in good form in goal, stood securely and didn’t allow a goal to be conceded during this weak phase. It wasn’t until after 20 minutes that the favorite found its rhythm and moved ahead with a 5-0 run to 11-5. The DHB selection took this six-goal cushion into the half-time break.

Confident performance after the change

When the game restarted, Katharina Filter moved between the posts of the German goal and made a few saves. Her teammates now acted much more consistently and continuously expanded their lead. In the middle of the second half, Germany led by ten goals for the first time at 23:13. “That was cool. We had fun and brought it home confidently,” said Wachter.