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Luisa Schulze at the litter
Photo: Claus Fisker / imago images / Ritzau Scanpix
The debacle was followed by a game of nerves: two days after their historic humiliation at the European Championships in Denmark, the German handball players moved into the main round with a hard-won draw.
The DHB selection of national coach Henk Groener secured progress through the arduous 21:21 (9: 8) against outsider Poland.
The team takes two points into the next round after beating Romania.
In the fight for the coveted semifinal places, the selection of the German Handball Federation (DHB) will now meet Croatia among others.
The two remaining places in the German main round group II are made up of Hungary, Serbia and the surprisingly still pointless world champion Netherlands on Tuesday.
The next game of the Germans will take place on Thursday.
With four goals in Kolding, Marlene Zapf was the best thrower of the nervous DHB women who suffered the highest defeat in their European history with 23:42 against record champions Norway on Saturday.
Because of the 22:19 at the start against Romania, the German team still had progress before the Poland game in their own hands - and managed to do so despite some teething problems.
It took six and a half minutes until Julia Maidhof, outnumbered, scored the first German goal to make it 1: 3.
But it remained an extremely tough game from DHB's point of view, after a given counterattack by left winger Antje Lauenroth, the underdog increased to 2: 6 (12th).
The German team could have afforded a defeat with a three-goal difference to advance - the good starting position was quickly gone.
Groener took the first break.
Five time penalties in the first 22 minutes
"The defense is too little," said Groener and criticized "alibi movements without pressure" in the attack.
As a result, the changed German coverage caused the Polish women greater problems, but the DHB women made life difficult for themselves with five time penalties in the first 22 minutes.
In addition, they made far too many offensive misses.
It took until the 28th minute before the DHB selection fought to equalize by Luisa Schulze.
The break only gave a little tailwind.
Poland even took the lead with two goals in the second half and demanded everything from the German team until the last minute of the game.
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