Handball World Cup: Germany fails in the quarterfinals against France

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Germany's world-class goalkeeper against France's superstar: Andreas Wolff stands in the way of Dika Mem

Photo: Jan Woitas / dpa

The German handball players were eliminated in the quarter-finals of the World Cup.

Against fellow favorite France, the young DHB team kept up well for a long time, but in the end had to admit defeat by a clear 28:35 (16:16).

The game against the co-favorites with superstar Dika Mem started 20 minutes late: because the game between Spain and Norway (35:34) lasted two extra times until a winner was determined, the kick-off for the DHB selection was postponed from 8:30 p.m at 8.50 p.m.

The team of national coach Alfred Gislason, who were able to fall back on backcourt player Paul Drux after being absent due to illness against Norway, did not allow themselves to be thrown off course by the change of plan.

The German team got off to a strong start, and in the first minute keeper Andreas Wolff parried a meme throw and brought the ball to a standstill just before the goal line.

Because Wolff also had a good day afterwards and was able to make nine saves at half-time, the German team spent long stretches of the first half in the lead.

After 16 minutes and Christoph Steinert's goal to make it 11:7, there were four goals between Germany and France for the first time, whose coach Guillaume Gille reacted with the first time-out of the game.

With success: The next four goals came for the French, only a German time-out brought the balance back into play.

It was 16:16 at the break because many German ball losses equalized the strong goalkeeper performance.

"With Andi Wolff like that in goal, we really have to win," said team manager Oliver Roggisch during the half-time break on ZDF.

However, things turned out differently.

France pulls away

At the beginning of the second half, France took the lead for the first time in the game.

The German team was able to snatch this from the favorites again, but over the distance there was a lack of accuracy in the final compared to the French ensemble.

When Gislason called a time-out five minutes before the end when the score was 25:30, the game already looked lost - and it was to remain so.

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