Germany missed the semi-finals at the European Championship in Croatia! The team of national coach Christian Prokop was defeated in Varazdin in the last and all decisive match of the main round with 27:31 (13:14) against Spain. The DHB team collapsed completely in the second half.
The German side found a good start to the game thanks to goalkeeper Andreas Wolff and the defence, in which Maximilian Janke, who had returned to the squad for the injured Paul Drux, was given plenty of time. In the attack, Philipp Weber, who as a playmaker had the advantage over the ailing Steffen Fäth, and Julius Kühn from the back room provided steam. Kuhn’s third goal already meant the 5:3 lead for the defending champion after ten minutes.
With increasing season, however, Spain’s top scorer Julen Aguinagalde (four goals in the first half) caused increasing difficulties for Germany’s coverage. The central block around Finn Lemke and alternately Patrick Wiencek and Hendrik Pekeler had a good grip on the rear of the Iberians.
Nevertheless, Spain put up a 5:1 race until the 15th minute. The second minute was 8:6 and for the rest of the first half he was slightly ahead. The extremely offensive defence of coach Jordi Ribera’s team from coach Jordi Ribera presented the DHB team at times with a puzzle that was difficult to solve.
Since captain Uwe Gensheimer again left an unhappy figure, Prokop brought Rune Dahmke into the game for the first time after about 25 minutes. With a 14:13 lead for Spain it went into the cabin.
The second round was a disaster from Germany. The entire squad rapidly dismantled, and one technical mistake followed on from another – against by no means outstanding Spaniards. On the 39th. In the eighth minute David Balaguer scored 18:15 to take the first three-goal lead for Spain.
Now Prokop wanted to turn the match around with the seventh fielder, which went horribly wrong. The now completely insecure DHB-team threw the balls away, the Spaniards came to easy hits on the empty goal. After 45 minutes, Spain led 23:15, which was of course the match. During the rest of the season, Germany was only able to do some cosmetics.
Initial formation DHB: Wolff – Gensheimer, Kühn, Weber, Weinhold, Groetzki, Wiencek
Goal scorers Germany: Häfner (5), Kühn (4), Weber (4), Reichmann (4 – 0/1 seven-metre), Kohlbacher (2), Groetzki (2), Pekeler (2), Wiencek (2), Gensheimer (2 – 1/1 seven-metre)
Scorers Spain: Balaguer (6), Sole (5 – 5/5 seven-metre), Alex Dujshebaev (5), Gurbindo, Entrerrios, Aguinagalde (all 4), Sarmiento (2), Arino (1), Rivera (0 – 0/1 seven-metre)
Two-minute time penalty: Germany 2 – Spain 1
Aguinagalde was strong, keeper Gonzalo Perez de Vargas was strong as well. However, Balaguer played a very large part on the right wing. The man from HBC Nantes was always very well set free and delivered – six of his seven throws were in.
In principle, the entire team should be named here. In an all-decisive game, at least the captain must be there. That wasn’t Gensheimer. The outside left wing made technical errors and uncertainties. He only scored two goals in a total of three attempts.