Handball-EM: DHB after preliminary round: European champions go differently

After the draw against Macedonia, the DHB team will only go into the main round of the European Championship in Croatia with two points. National coach Christian Prokop believes that despite the weak preliminary round, everything is still possible. Returning Finn Lemke also radiates optimism.

Finn Lemke stood surrounded by journalists in the Mixed Zone of the Arena Zagreb and beamed. The defensive boss, who had been reclaimed before the match and whose non-nomination before the European Championships caused a wave of waves, had shown a good performance and provided stability to the previously shaky defence.

Now he was just happy to be with the team and to be able to help “At the moment, the joy prevails. Now we can attack properly, now comes the hot phase. We still have all the options,”said the 2.10-metre giant from MT Melsungen.

Christian Prokop saw it in a similar way:”It is a just result. We could have lost or won the game. So we take an important point with us and still have all the options,”explained the national coach.

Lemke’s joy is understandable from his personal point of view. And of course, Prokop’s assessment that everything is still in place was not wrong.

Only Macedonia have three points in Group II, which for the DHB team will start on Friday at 6.15 p. m. in Varazdin, just under 100 kilometres north of Zagreb, against the Czech Republic.

With two points, Germany is on a par with Spain, Denmark and the Czechs. Slovenia lags a little behind with only one point in the fight for one of the first two places, which will qualify them for the semi-finals.

Nevertheless, the result of the preliminary round can be drawn much less optimistically. The DHB team showed an improvement in their defence against Macedonia, but otherwise the Prokop squad was anything but convincing, as they did in the draw against Slovenia.

Some of the attack seemed to lack a concrete plan or at least not to work. The rear area – except for the strong Steffen Weinhold (eight goals) – lacked all the clout.

Goalkeeper Andreas Wolff was better than against Slovenia, but once again he failed to reach his best form, so Silvio Heinevetter had to be replaced again.

A team with self-confidence and conviction behaves differently. Germany is currently far from being able to defend its European Championship title.

The opening appearance against Montenegro was sovereign, but no yardstick. The comeback against Slovenia was only made possible by a doubtful double majority midway through the second half and the video proof madness. And also against Macedonia the danger of a bankruptcy was real – but Heinevetter held up superbly against Stojanche Stoilov 15 seconds before the end.

With a bit of bad luck, the DHB team’s performance so far could have meant zero points for the main round and thus the end of all dreams. The goal set before the start of the tournament, to advance with four points without damage, was missed anyway.

“I’m just incredibly angry right now,”said the fully serviced Wolff. And Heinevetter added:”The semi-final is not an issue for the time being.”

After Heinevetter’s parade against Macedonia, there was still a chance to win in the last few seconds. However, Prokop’s play during the time-out was not implemented.

“We played the last attack to undisciplined. The plan was, where the ball was, to look for the decision whether in the back room or over the circle or over Uwe Gensheimer, who had a good hand”, explained the national coach.

Instead, a bad pass from Philipp Weber on Patrick Groetzki prevented a final outcome:”The diagonal pass was certainly the worst of the options,”criticized Prokop.

The 39-year-old came to the conclusion:”The attitude of this team is positive. But we need to step up our position as a matter of urgency.”

DHB Vice President Bob Hanning summed it up:”We are condemned to victory,”as DHB Vice-President Bob Hanning put it in a nutshell.

Glad Lemke’s back. The 25-year-old will do the team good not only in his defence, but also with his confidence.

“I really fancy the main round,”said the Bad Boy, still smiling:”It’s going to be cool games. Denmark is horny, Spain is always fun and Czech Republic is a bag of wonder.”