The German national handball team just saved the chance for fifth place at the world championship. In the first placement game, the team of coach Alfred Gislason is comfortably ahead before it collapses again devastatingly. Only in extra time can the team secure victory.
Balm for the soul, the consolation prize beckons: Germany's handball players passed their character test at the World Cup after an unnecessary thriller and kept their chance of fifth place. Led by a once again outstanding Andreas Wolff, the German team defeated the Olympic fourth-placed Egypt with 35:34 (30:30, 17:14) after extra time and is now fighting for a conciliatory end of the tournament on Sunday.
"The last quarter of an hour was a bit parallel to the France game, unfortunately that's the way it is," said national coach Alfred Gislason after Germany had only scored three goals in the last 15 minutes: "There was very little danger from the backcourt and we have made a lot of technical errors and fouls on the forward throughout the game."
Captain Johannes Golla admitted on the ARD microphone that "in a way we've achieved our goal, but of course you can't be satisfied with the way the game went". It could be that "some were too sure, but of course that shouldn't happen, I hope we learn from it."
After a ten-minute period without a goal of their own, Germany completely lost the thread in the final phase, lost an eight-goal lead after 42 minutes and had to go into overtime. Golla (7 goals), playmaker Juri Knorr (6) and Julian Köster (6) became the best German throwers in front of 1604 spectators in Stockholm. "Man of the Match" was once again the world-class goalkeeper Andreas Wolff.
Two days after the quarter-final loss against Olympic champions France (28:35), Gislason's team presented themselves as recovered and highly motivated, but the phase of weakness at the end left many questioning faces. Wolff saved the narrow victory over time, after 60 minutes he had 19 saves on his account. The decision on Germany's final placement will now be made during the final day on Sunday. Norway will be the opponent in the match for fifth place. The Scandinavians clearly prevailed against Hungary with 33:25.
Gislason spread the game over several shoulders early on - and his team thanked him with a really strong early phase. It took until the fifth minute for the first goal to be conceded. And up front, playmaker Juri Knorr cleverly steered the game.
"Booooom," shouted Wolff through the almost deserted Tele2 soccer arena after the keeper had saved the sixth Egyptian shot after fifteen minutes and the score was 10:6. And when the agile Kai Häfner netted to make it 15:8 ten minutes later, Gislason called out to his protégés during a time-out: "You're all doing very, very well."
All the more annoying that the German team conceded six goals in the last five minutes of the first half - and the African champions suddenly came back to three goals. Golla and Co. initially kept their concentration high in the second round. At the back, Wolff was still world class, at the front Knorr scored twice to make it 24:19 (39 th ). "They're about to break. We're tired, but they're more tired," said Gislason during a timeout. It was still exciting: Stutzke saw the red card after his third time penalty (52nd) - and Egypt hit the crossbar in the final second of regular time.
