- Switzerland lost the opening game of the European Handball Championship in Düsseldorf in front of 53,596 fans against Germany 14:27.
- The national team was already 5 goals behind at halftime, and Germany goalie Andreas Wolff kept making strong saves.
- In the other game in Group A, France achieved the expected victory against North Macedonia.
At the beginning, the Swiss national team was able to keep up with the favorites. The game remained even until 2-2. But then devastating minutes followed for Switzerland and at the same time the great appearance of the German goalie Andreas Wolff. From the 11th to the 20th minute of the game, the national team remained without a goal for almost 9 minutes, repeatedly failing due to the outstanding opposing goalkeeper or their own, too complicated game.
Germany exploited this phase mercilessly. The European Championship hosts moved from 4:3 to 9:3 and thus made the decisive difference before half the game. Cheered on by a record crowd – 53,596 fans attended the game in the Düsseldorf football stadium – the Germans defended compactly and countered quickly and efficiently when they won the ball.
Even Nikola Portner, the best Swiss player of the evening, who was in good form in goal, could hardly do anything against the offensive superiority. In addition, the goalie had to be replaced after a collision a few minutes before the end – it would be the next setback for the injury-plagued Swiss team.
Germany continues to dominate
The same picture emerged in the second half. This time the Swiss remained without a goal of their own for over a quarter of an hour. Meanwhile, Germany made a lot of changes, coach Alfred Gislason gave all players some playing time – the outstanding Wolff also made way for replacement David Späth after 51 minutes.
In the end, the Germans clearly won 27:14. The class difference was clear in all respects, the Swiss offensive in particular had a bad day. Under coach Michael Suter, the Swiss had never scored so few goals before.
France starts well
Tournament co-favorites France had won their game against North Macedonia 39:29 before the Swiss game. The French only struggled at the start of the game and were down 8:10 midway through the first half. With a subsequent 4-0 run, last year’s World Cup runner-up quickly put things right again.
This is how it goes
On Sunday evening from 6:00 p.m. the national team will face France, and the group phase will conclude on Tuesday with the game against North Macedonia. In order to make it to the next round, Switzerland would have to finish in one of the top two places in the group.
The voices for the game