Andreas Wolff was “Man of the Match” with 61% of balls saved
Photo: Lobeca/Patrick Suephke
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Lübeck – Den Kick-off of the 2024 European Handball Championship (EM 2024) made the preliminary round encounter in Group A between France and North Macedonia. Here France clearly prevailed with 39:29 (17:13) and brought the first compulsory points on the credit side. The German national handball team also clinched their mandatory victory against the Swiss with 27:14 (13:8) in their opening game in front of a record crowd of 53,586 spectators in Düsseldorf’s Merkur Game Arena. National coach Alfred Gislason’s team took the lead in the group for the first time and thus laid the foundation for reaching the main round.
Consistent defense and Wolff’s outstanding performance in goal gave the Swiss a run for their money
The German national handball team got into the game well thanks to a stable, mobile defense and a very good Andreas Wolff in goal. Juri Knorr opened the game 1-0 in the first minute in front of a record crowd. Wolff then defused his first ball out of a total of ten in the first half and only had to reach behind him for the first time in the 4th minute to make it 1-1. After Kai Häfner made it 2-1, Wolff parried a seven-meter throw from Andy Schmid, but had to let the follow-up pass to make it 2-2. The DHB team touched concrete in defense and what still got through was a sure prey for Wolff. Germany went on a 5-0 run – initiated and completed by Knorr – and turned a 4:3 (11th minute) into a 9:3 (19th minute) despite the Schweitzer time-out. National coach Gislason’s team remained agile in defense and confident in attack, apart from a few small mistakes, and took a reassuring 13:8 into the dressing room. Juri Knorr as a leader and thinker and a confident seven-meter shooter
Photo: Lobeca/Patrick Suephke
Germany went 17 minutes without conceding a goal in the second half
In the second half, the Swiss scored the first goal at 9:13 and the last goal at 10:15 (38th) for a long period of time. The DHB team went on an 8-0 run to make it 23:10, interrupted by two timeouts from the Swiss, before they scored their third goal of the second half at 11:23 in the 55th minute, after a 17-minute lull. In this phase, Germany showed itself to be superior in all respects, despite the national coach rotating players. Until his substitution at 22:10, Wolff in goal defused another good opportunity for the Swiss with a rate of 61% and a consistent retreat behavior took away the last edge from the opponent. The hall loudly chants “Oh, how beautiful that is.”
In the final phase, David Späth also distinguished himself with saves in goal. Even if the Swiss were still a bit cosmetic about the results, this did not detract from the 27:14 start-to-finish victory of the German national handball team. In the end, Andreas Wolff was rightly voted “Man of the Match” thanks to his dream quota. With this success, the DHB team also took the lead in Group A ahead of France, who had previously outclassed North Macedonia with 39:29.
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Germany played in the following lineup
David Späth, Andreas Wolff – Johannes Golla (1), Sebastian Heymann (2), Justus Fischer (3), Juri Knorr (6/2), Julian Köster (3), Philipp Weber (2), Renars Uscins, Kai Häfner ( 2), Rune Dahmke (1), Lukas Mertens (2), Martin Hanne (1), Christoph Steinert, Timo Kastening (2), Jannik Kohlbacher (2)
Table Group A: 1st matchday
PointsToreDiff1Deutschland 2:027:14132France 2:039:29103North Macedonia 0:229:39-104Switzerland 0:214:27-13
Image sources
- Match winner Andreas Wolff: Lobeca/Patrick Suephke
2024-01-11 19:04:26
#DHB #team #confident #startfinish #victory #Swiss #HLSPORTS
