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German handball players have reported at the European Championships in Denmark after a weak preliminary round. National coach Henk Groener’s team celebrated a clear 32:25 (13:11) win against Hungary at the start of the main round in Kolding and are keeping their sights on reaching the semi-finals for the first time since 2008.
The best pitcher on the German team was baseline Emily Bölk with five hits. Goalkeeper Dinah Eckerle stood out with ten saves. With four points, the German Handball Federation (DHB) team is third in its main round group behind Croatia and record European champion Norway. The best two teams in each group reach the semi-finals.
“We are happy that we were finally able to show what we can,” captain Kim Naidzinavicius said: “We haven’t done well in the last few games, but today we had a good defense, a good speed game.”
Both teams got into the game well, especially the German defense against strong Eckerle shaped the early stages. Offensively, the DHB women failed to escape early due to numerous false shots. Especially the rapid counterattacks posed great problems for the Hungarians.
A two-minute penalty against Xenia Smits gave Hungary another boost: DHB–The team was seven minutes without a goal. After the break they came back thanks to Bölk’s goals. In the later stages they further expanded their lead and thus improved the meager goal difference after the historic defeat at 23:42 to Norway.
After a day off on Sunday, the Dutch world champions await Monday (6:15 pm CET; Stream: sportdeutschland.tv), and Croatia will be on Tuesday (6:15 pm). This schedule had caused annoyance in the German camp, as the day off between the last two games was canceled.
