Handball EM: DHB team meets Spain today – Corona cases with the opponent

Created: 2022-01-20Updated: 2022-01-20 4:27 PM

By: Stefan Krieger, Sarah Neumeyer, Alina Schroeder

After beating Poland, the DHB selection at the 2022 European Handball Championship had every reason to celebrate.

© Marco Wolf/imago

Nine Corona failures, five nominees - and only one goalkeeper.

Despite everything, the DHB selection has reached the main round at the European Handball Championship and meets Spain today.

• The DHB team is struggling with numerous corona failures* at the European Handball Championship 2022* in Hungary and Slovakia.

• In the main round, the team around national coach Alfred Gislason is now up against Spain, Norway, Sweden and Russia.

• The first win against the reigning European champions Spain is scheduled for Thursday evening (01/20/2022).

Germany - Spain -:-, game starts on Thursday, January 20th, 2022, 6 p.m

>>> Update Ticker <<<

+++ 4:26 p.m .:

After the DHB team was spared further corona cases before the main round match against Spain, the Spanish team has now caught it, reports Sport 1.

Accordingly, two players tested positive: former Kiel Bundesliga player Joan Canellas and Ian Tarrafeta.

The Spanish association announced this on Thursday afternoon.

So far, there had been no corona cases in the Spanish team during the European Handball Championship.

Canellas and Tarrafeta are in "good health" and have been quarantined, the statement said.

All other Spanish players can take part in the game against Germany.

Corona chaos at European Handball Championship: No game postponement - DHB team meets Spain today

+++ 14:32:

The German national handball team

is few hours

was spared further corona cases before the first main round game against Spain.

This was announced by the German Handball Federation (DHB) on Thursday afternoon.

All tests carried out on Wednesday evening were negative.

The three replacements Lukas are now also responsible for the absent players

Stutzke, David Schmidt and Tobias Reichmann joined the team* from MT Melsungen.

National coach Alfred Gislason now has 16 handball players available in the EM duel with the defending champion.

Due to the many positive corona tests, the DHB applied to the European Handball Federation (EHF) on Wednesday evening to move the game against Spain.

The EHF did not grant the request to postpone the game.

The game will take place as planned on Thursday evening at 6 p.m. in Bratislava.

Live ticker for the European handball championship: DHB team affected by further corona cases before the duel against Spain

+++ 12.20 p.m .:

The Omicron wave at the European Handball Championship is increasingly affecting other nations in addition to the German team.

On Wednesday, 18 positive corona cases were reported from the camp of the twelve teams remaining in the tournament - including the three in the DHB selection.

It is the most affected with twelve infected players so far.

Croatia, who finished second at the European Championships in Hungary and Slovakia, was hit just as badly, with a total of nine positive cases up to Thursday morning.

Up to this point, Poland had six infected players, the Netherlands and Russia four each, Sweden and Iceland three each and Olympic champion France one.

After all, four main round participants did not even record a corona case during the tournament: defending champion Spain, world champion Denmark, third place in the European Championship Norway and Montenegro.

Update from January 20th, 2022, 8.40 a.m .:

After further Corona failures, Germany’s handball players are weakened in terms of personnel in the first EM main round game against Spain.

For the duel with the defending champion this Thursday (6 p.m. / ARD), national coach Alfred Gislason has at least 16 players available because, according to dpa information, the DHB has again nominated players for the tournament in Slovakia and Hungary.

Live ticker: After turbulent days, the DHB selection meets Spain at the European Handball Championship

Bratislava – There are turbulent days behind the DHB selection.

Although the team around national coach Alfred Gislason was able to celebrate entering the main round on Sunday (January 16, 2022), the bad news spread quickly afterwards.

Backcourt player Julius Kühn tested positive for Corona at the weekend, the player Hendrik Wagner nominated for him was also positive and therefore could not help the team.

But that's not all.

On Monday (01/17/2022) five other players of the DHB team were then infected, on Tuesday (01/18/2022) two more corona cases were added.

As a result, a total of nine players were absent at short notice.

Coach Gislason nominated five players, including goalkeeper Johannes Bitter.

If he hadn't been able to play against Poland on Tuesday, the German team would not have had a goalkeeper, because both Andreas Wolff and Till Klimpke are in isolation due to a corona infection.

DHB selection meets Spain in the main round of the handball championship

But it went well, Bitter was able to play and immediately showed a good performance against Poland.

Overall, the DHB team seemed in better shape, the defense delivered for the first time in this tournament, with Julian Köster and Christoph Steinert in particular providing the necessary goals.

In the end, the result was clear with 30:23* and the team secured first place in the group.

In the main round, Spain, Norway, Sweden and Russia are now waiting for the DHB selection.

Anything but easy tasks, but the team had already described themselves as "lucky bags" before the tournament - and they live up to this description.

DHB selection with difficulties in the preliminary round of the European Handball Championship

Nevertheless: The team had a really difficult time against Belarus and Austria at times, the defense allowed too many goals from the opponents. If the team can repeat their performance from the game against Poland in the main round, they could keep a small chance of progressing. The first game of the main round on Thursday (January 20th, 2022) will be against the reigning European champions Spain.

The Spanish team starts with six tournament debutants in the European Handball Championship, but the big goal for the team around national coach Jordi Ribera is again: defending the title.

After the surprising victory of the German team in 2016, no team came past Spain in 2018 and 2020, so they should be the strongest opponent of the DHB selection in the main round.

(skr)