Sunday 07 November 2021
Bankruptcy against Portugal
In the end, it wasn’t enough for the new DHB team
National coach Alfred Gislasson makes two top-class test matches of the German national handball team a debut ball. After a win against Portugal, the second comparison ends in a defeat. In the end it gets tight again after a thunderstorm.
Dampers for the young and wild: Germany’s handball players lost their second international match against Portugal within 48 hours after the successful restart. The newly formed DHB selection was defeated by the European Championship sixth in front of 5478 spectators in Düsseldorf with 30:32 (17:17). On Friday evening there was another 30:28 victory in Luxembourg. The best throwers in the team of national coach Alfred Gislason were captain Johannes Golla, David Schmidt, Marcel Schiller and Lukas Zerbe with four goals each.
Unlike in the first duel in Luxembourg, Gislason initially relied on players who made their debut in the DHB jersey on Friday evening, with the exception of backcourt player Sebastian Heymann and Kreisläufer Golla. That didn’t detract from the joy of playing, but it did affect the vote. After a short warm-up phase, the German team took the lead at 4: 3 (8th) for the first time, which was expanded to a maximum of four goals (15: 11/23) despite some weaknesses in defense and attack.
The wingers Lukas Mertens (left) and Lukas Zerbe (right) played a major role in this. The 25-year-old nephew of the former national player Volker Zerbe scored four times in the first 30 minutes, the Magdeburg of the same age three times. In the final phase of the first half, however, the German team came out of the rhythm a little and Portugal for the first time to equalize at 17:17. It was thanks to goalkeeper Joel Birlehm that the Gislason protégés did not go into the break behind.
Shortly before the restart it got emotional: to the thunderous applause of the audience, Steffen Weinhold and long-time captain Uwe Gensheimer, who scored a total of 921 goals in 204 international matches, officially bid farewell to the national team. Her successors then found it difficult, especially since Gislason switched completely to Golla. The result: At 18:22 (36th), the DHB team was suddenly behind with four goals. The national coach reacted immediately with a break in which he loudly vented his displeasure.
But it didn’t get any better at first because there were still too many gaps in the defense. Only eleven minutes before the end, the DHB selection, in which goalkeeper Till Klimpke was getting stronger, made the connection at 26:27. Although the German attacking game remained flawed, they equalized at 29:29 in the final phase. In the end, however, the Portuguese cheered.