Saturday, December 4th 2021
Second win in the second World Cup game
Handball women book the main round ticket
The German handball players keep their clean slate at the World Cup. The win against Slovakia is clear. Against Hungary it is now about the best possible starting position for the further course of the tournament.
After another convincing performance at the World Cup in Spain, Germany’s handball women reached the main round and thus the first stage goal ahead of time. The DHB selection won against Slovakia in front of about 550 spectators in Llíria with 36:22 (17:12) and has 4: 0 points in Group E after their second win in the second game. The best throwers for the DHB women, who were superior in all respects, were Alina Grijseels with six goals and Meike Schmelzer (5). Antje Lauenroth, Xenia Smits and Johanna Stockschläder each contributed four goals.
In the last preliminary round game against Hungary next Monday, the team of national coach Henk Groener is not only about winning the group, but above all a good starting position for the further course of the tournament, as the result will be taken away.
The German team started highly concentrated and quickly led 5: 1 after six minutes. But then negligence crept in. At 6: 5 (11th) it was back to Slovakia. Overall, the DHB team had the opponent under control. The defense acted as aggressively as in the clear opening win against the Czech Republic and took a lot of work from goalkeeper Dinah Eckerle.
In the attack, a lot ran across the circle, where Schmelzer was constantly causing unrest, and the outside. Lauenroth in particular proved to be very accurate in the first round. So it went into the half-time break with a comfortable five-goal lead.
Even after the change, the DHB women made a turbo start and quickly expanded their lead to nine goals (22: 13/36.). Groener switched again and gave all players important minutes.
The showpiece remained the defense with a very good goalkeeper Katharina Filter behind them. The World Cup debutante showed a number of brilliant parades and thus initiated many quick counter-attacks, which often led to success. Eight minutes before the end the lead was even 14 goals at 32:18. The rest was a show for the German team.