Emotional interview by Juri Knorr! The German playmaker gave insights into his emotional world after the bitter 26:29 defeat against Denmark in the European Championship semi-finals.
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“I just feel extremely empty right now,” said Knorr in the mixed zone after he and his colleagues gave the top favorite a big fight.
“I blame myself for… I don’t know… Flippi (Philipp Weber, editor’s note) did great when he came in. “It brought a breath of fresh air, but I can only talk about what I did,” said Knorr.
Knorr: “I am currently accusing myself of…”
“After the first half I had a great feeling and hmm… I just blame myself for not doing it in such a big game, in one of the biggest games of my career, where I want to have fun and enjoy everything “I did,” said the agitated 23-year-old.
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He added: “What does ‘not done’ mean, but I didn’t leave everything on the record. That’s what I’m accusing myself of right now.”
Handball European Championship: Germany vs. Denmark – the highlights from the semi-finals | Video
In the end, Knorr was the best scorer in the semi-final with four goals, but he also missed four chances and was unable to put his usual stamp on the game against the world’s best national team after the break. In the first half, however, the backcourt star showed a strong performance.
“He played an outstanding first half – as a conductor,” enthused coach Alfred Gislason SPORT1-Demand: “You can of course tell that he and Köster play a lot and are extremely important to us. What was very good was that Weber came in and played very well in the middle.”
For Knorr, who ended up just sitting on the bench, “the batteries just have to recharge.”
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Knorr: “I feel extremely empty”
“After the first half I had the feeling that it was something really special because everyone was really giving it their all. “It was missing quite a bit,” said Knorr.
The “ultimate greed, the serenity, simply this fight until the end. Of course we did it as a team, but not beyond the limit like we did in the first half. We couldn’t do that for over 60 minutes. As a team we still achieved something special, but I would have liked to have had more.”
Germany was “the blatant underdog,” “but I felt that something was possible today. And I think that was it after the first half. Everyone felt that. It just hurts not to have given everything, everything. I just feel extremely empty right now.”