The German national handball team has already achieved great things at the home European Championships. Now you also want the maximum. The task couldn’t be greater. You rely on yourself, the circumstances – and on very special help.
It crashed, it shook and in the end there was blood: there was a scene during this European Championship that proved that Denmark’s handball players are actually real people made of flesh and blood. During the world champion’s main round victory over Norway (29:23), goalkeeper Emil Nielsen crashed into the post of his goal during a defensive action, the result was a bleeding wound on his ear. The 26-year-old underwent treatment, stayed in – and was voted “Man of the Match” because of his 15 saves.
The bleeding world-class goalkeeper at least gave an idea that the Danes are not highly delicate, high-performance handball machines or superhuman beings. Denmark became world champions three times in a row, they play “phenomenal handball,” enthused national coach Alfred Gislason. Fast-paced play, positional attack, defense, routine and freshness: coach Nicolaj Jacobsen’s team has no weaknesses, it is a perfectly rolling machine, driven by collective individual class that combines to form an outstanding collective.
“Awesome challenge”
The appreciation of the German team on Friday (8.30 p.m./ZDF and in the live ticker on ntv.de) against the super team from the north for a place in the European Championship final is limitless: “It’s no secret that the Danes play the most beautiful, best and most effective handball. But it will be a great challenge,” said backcourt player Philipp Weber.
Denmark is where the German team, driven by the home crowd in Cologne, wants to develop at a record pace: in the world class. The whole handball world is afraid of Mathias Gidsel, top scorer and most valuable player at the last World Cup. The left-hander “has the feeling that I’m currently playing the handball of my life,” he said before the final round.
Simon Pytlick (SG Flensburg-Handewitt), Magnus Saugstrup from Champions League winner SC Magdeburg, plus “the best goalkeeping duo in the world” (Andreas Wolff), which Emil Nielsen forms with Niklas Landin: The Danes are there in every position World-class cast, the sum of the individual parts is frightening. Even in the lower ranks of the squad there is still absolute class. The Bundesliga record goalscorer Hans Lindberg, right winger for Füchse Berlin, is actually more of a supporting player in the ensemble of high-class handball players.
The DHB team actually has no chance against the top favorites. “I wish they had weaknesses. I’m glad that I’m not a coach and have to adjust the boys to the Danes,” said goalkeeper Andreas Wolff to dpa. “The Danes are the ultimate in international handball.” They have recently become world champions three times in a row and won silver at the 2020 Olympics. Only at European Championships does it not really work: the last title dates back to 2012. But now handball is experiencing the age of the Danes. “We need the best performance of the last few decades to have a chance against Denmark,” said Gislason, expressing his hope: “We’re hoping for a great day.”
“The hottest thing in the world”
What would help the German team on the way to becoming a sensation would be a miracle. “Maybe there’s someone up there who will take special care of us on Friday,” Left winger Rune Dahmke hoped. Dahmke is one of those who were there at the last German handball miracle in 2016, when the “Bad Boys” completely unexpectedly became European champions. Despite the supposedly clear starting position and with a sobering performance in the main round final against Croatia behind them, the German team wants to turn the game into something great.
Against the superhumans, they want to transcend their own power with the help of the audience: “If you have a chance for a miracle anywhere, it’s in Cologne,” said Dahmke. For Juri Knorr, it’s “the best thing in the world to be able to play a semi-final in front of our fans. We need a special day, lots of handball ingredients as well as courage and mentality. We can’t appear with fear.”
19,750 mostly German fans will transform the Lanxess Arena into a cauldron. “The fans are a huge factor. It’s been gigantic so far, but we need even more. We need twice as much,” demanded Germany’s playmaker and added: “Everyone has to scream for us. Every single person has to scream for us and whip us forward. ” Dahmke sees the chance that the hosts can play freely: “You have a semi-final at home in front of a sold-out crowd. And yet you don’t have the pressure on your side. That’s something special. That we can say that against the best team in the world.” We’ll throw everything in and see what comes out, it’s an incomparable situation.”
“We win one out of ten games”
But the handball god put homework ahead of the hope for the “Miracle of Cologne” and the belief in the power of home advantage. The mathematically meaningless mood dampener against Croatia once again painfully focused on the big German shortcoming in this tournament: the exploitation of chances is not sufficient to achieve something really big.
“We simply have to find our shots more consistently in attack and then throw with an eye and not just shoot at them blindly,” demanded pivot Fischer. Weber criticized the lack of cool-headedness “to put the thing past the goalkeeper.”
They are not afraid: “They should first show how good they are,” said Philipp Weber. “If you’re not ready now, you’re in the wrong place,” Captain Johannes Golla swore to his troops. And Andreas Wolff is sure: “We have 100 percent chance of winning the game.”
They know about Germany’s strengths when it comes to their opponents: “The German team put up a good defense in the tournament. Andreas Wolff in goal showed his great class in key moments. Julian Köster and Juri Knorr play very well, Kai Häfner is very experienced,” said the coach Nicolaj Jacobsen before the big game. “And they have two of the world’s best pivots in Johannes Golla and Jannik Kohlbacher. We know that it will be difficult.”
The German team undoubtedly has to surpass itself, otherwise it cannot make the overwhelming opponent vulnerable. “We win one out of ten games,” said young star Nils Lichtlein, summing up the initial situation in a simple formula. “Nobody knows when this one game is going to be.” A maximum performance at least increases the chance that the big day will fall in January 2024.