The German national handball team is on its mission to defend its title with confidence for the European Championship in Croatia (12. till 28. The closer the first game approaches, the hotter we are. We are well prepared and are very happy”, said Captain Uwe Gensheimer to the SID on Thursday shortly before departure at Berlin’s Tegel Airport.
Before the opening match against Montenegro on Saturday at 5.15 p. m. in the LIVETICKER against Montenegro, the memories of the European Championship coup of 2016 are there again:”In fact, everyone dreams of repeating such a fairy tale,”said DHB Vice President Bob Hanning.
The European Championship two years ago in Poland was a long time ago. We want to play as good a preliminary round as possible, ideally we take all the points into the main round”, said team manager Oliver Roggisch:”And then there will be some real bangs” In the preliminary round against the World Cup third Slovenia (Monday / 6.15 pm) and Macedonia (Wednesday / 6.15 pm).
The turmoil surrounding the non-nomination of European champions Finn Lemke, Fabian Wiede and Rune Dahmke for the 16-strong line-up is over “When people have to go home and don’t come back, it’s a bit of a funny mood. But that’s the way it is every year. You can’t take that into account any more,”said Patrick Groetzki, right-wing foreigner:”And we don’t want to lose sight of our goals and continue to stand together as a team”.