Algeria torn to pieces: DHB’s team walks and conjures against the underdog

Algeria in pieces
Team DHB walks in and does magic against the underdog

01/17/2023, 7:24 PM

The main round ticket and the group victory already in the bag serve Algeria in the final qualifying round as a contender for the match: German handball players are clearly winning and use the opportunity to save energy and further fine-tune to fight for the World Cup. Quarterfinals.

A resounding victory and many tailwinds: German handball players completed the World Cup preliminary round with an impeccable record and prepared for the main round. The team of national coach Alfred Gislason easily defeated his Algerian counterpart 37:21 (16:9) and gained additional self-confidence to fight for the quarter-finals with the third victory in the third championship match.

Circuit runner Yannick Kohlbacher was the best German thrower in front of about 1,000 spectators at the Spodek Arena with ten goals in Kattowitz. But the big news on Tuesday night was this: no player was injured in a trivial sporting match. In addition, the players from the second row accumulated valuable playing time. “The boys played very focused. I’m very happy with the performance of the second row,” Gislason told ZDF. “It was very important to go with the flow with us and we saw how wide we were in the team. We built a really good foundation,” added Luka Witzky.

Captain Johannes Jula and his team mates are now fully focused on the main round, in which Germany start as group winners with a full 4-0 scoreline. The first opponent is Argentina on Thursday. Other competitors in the race for the targeted knockout stage are the Netherlands and Norway. The sixth group was completed by the national teams of Serbia and Qatar, which the German national team had previously defeated in the first preliminary round. Only the two best teams advance to the quarter-finals.

“going according to plan”

“A lot” is possible with the team, Lukas Mertens said Tuesday on ZDF after the successful preliminary round. The matches so far, especially 34:33 in the stress test against Serbia, “has given us a huge boost”.

Keeping the tension high, strengthening the second line and gaining momentum: Gislason’s plan for a preliminary round finish against the Africans, who are international runners-up at best, has worked perfectly. The German starting seven, who changed the national coach to four centers (Juri Knorr, Mertens, Julian Koster, Kai Hafner, Luka Witske, Ron Dahmke, Simon Ernst and Christoph Steinert), needed a small starting stage. But with the first DHB lead exactly seven minutes later (4:3), everything went like clockwork.

The defense improved in the back in the minute, and Andreas Wolf hit 40% of all corner kicks in the first half. Up front, players like Djibril Mbeng and Luka Wetzky have made their mark on the scorers list. “It’s a very confident and calm performance. On the one hand, we can bring more players to the tournament, and on the other hand, we can protect the players,” said Axel Kromer, NBD’s sporting director, at half-time.

In Division Two, too, DHB’s selection left nothing to burn – and continued to up the score. Joel Perlem was allowed to excel on goal. In attack, left winger Dahmaki and backcourt player Paul Draux scored their first goals in the tournament.