Thursday April 29, 2021
19. Qualifying success in a row
DHB team struggles on short trip to Bosnia
The German national handball team does not want to stay long in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Arrival, European Championship qualifier, departure – all within one day. The performance is mixed. At the end of the day, it is mainly tried and tested forces that judge.
Effort and struggle instead of spectacle and speed: The German handball players clinched a hard-earned, mandatory victory in the first endurance test of their Olympic casting. The DHB team of national coach Alfred Gislason kept its clean slate in the European Championship qualification with a 26:24 (15:15) in Bosnia and Herzegovina and expanded its success series in the competition to 19 qualifying victories in a row.
Left winger Marcel Schiller was the most successful shooter on the lightning trip to Bugojno with ten hits for the selection of the German Handball Federation (DHB), which had many problems and only decided the game in their favor shortly before the end. On Sunday (6 p.m. / Sport1), the DHB men can perfect a perfect qualification against Estonia in Stuttgart with six wins from six games.
Germany had already secured participation in the finals of the EM 2022 in Hungary and Slovakia in January. Therefore, during the day trip to Bosnia, which was carried out under strict corona measures, where the DHB team did not arrive until Thursday morning and from where the return journey to Germany was to take place in the late evening, the focus was already on the Olympic Games in Tokyo. Gislason mainly tested in the back area.
Gislason finds no rest
The DHB coach started with playmaker Juri Knorr in the middle, Sebastian Heymann on half-left and Fabian Wiede on half-right. He asked the trio to “show how far they are under the most difficult conditions” before the game on ARD. Ultimately, however, the outside players Schiller and Timo Kastening stood out with their accuracy as well as goalkeeper Andreas Wolff, Knorr showed good approaches in a long tough game.
Germany found the game quite difficult. The hosts, who are still fighting for their European Championship ticket, kept the game exciting with quick individual attacks. The rebuilt DHB selection made too many mistakes in its own attack – Gislason initially watched the game with his arms crossed in peace.
Shortly before Bosnia turned the first German three-goal lead (11: 8/22.) To its own lead (12: 13/26.) Around the strong Bundesliga goalkeeper Benjamin Buric (Flensburg), the Icelandic playmaker Philipp Weber for Heymann, who was often over-motivated. Weber, who represented the injured missing Uwe Gensheimer as captain, initially gave the German attacking game no dynamism either.
It remained a close game, and even as Gislason after the break, it relied on experienced staff like Steffen Weinhold or Julius Kühn. Germany repeatedly made the wrong decisions, but took the lead again with two goals for the first time at 23:21 (51st). Gislason paced nervously up and down his coaching zone.
.