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Jannik Kohlbacher scored important goals for the DHB team
Photo:
Jan Woitas / dpa
The German national handball team also won their second game at the World Cup in Sweden and Poland and thus qualified early for the main round.
Johannes Golla (6 goals), Lukas Mertens (6) and goalkeeper Joel Birlehm were the team's best players in the 34:33 (19:17) victory against the strongly rated Serbs, who had won their opening game against Algeria.
As in the opening win against Qatar, Germany weakened a little on the defensive in the second half, but recovered in the end.
On Tuesday (6 p.m.) the DHB team meets Algeria in the final preliminary round match, then it continues in the main round.
Only the bottom of the group is eliminated, the teams take the points they won in the preliminary round against nations that also qualified.
Should outsiders Algeria be eliminated, Germany would take four points with them.
More about the mode and the schedule can be found here.
Germany always leads – but cannot break away
As against Qatar, Germany put pressure on from the start.
The team coached by Alfred Gíslason proved to be variable, especially in attack, and scored five goals in the first five minutes.
Circle runner Golla in particular broke through again and again.
However, the DHB selection was not able to break away because the Serbs also repeatedly finished powerfully from the back.
Goalkeeper Andreas Wolff was fit after his calf injury in the opening game against Qatar, but was unable to continue the outstanding performance.
After 25 minutes, Birlehm replaced the hapless keeper.
At the break, the DHB team had a two-goal lead.
In the second half, Germany played aggressively and variably in attack, especially the interaction between playmaker Juri Knorr and pivot Jannick Kohlbacher repeatedly caused danger.
And because the defense also became more alert and Birlehm made several strong saves, the German team was initially able to pull away.
After around 38 minutes, the DHB selection led 26:21.
But the lead then melted again, simple mistakes always crept in on the offensive, which Serbia often punished with fast counterattacks.
In the end, it was primarily Birlehm's saves that secured victory for Germany.
kyo