{ “placement”: “banner”, “placementId”: “banner” }
{ “placeholderType”: “BANNER” }
Decision made about DHB star!
Indoor air instead of a stadium feeling: After the “extreme experience” in the football arena, the DHB team competes against North Macedonia on familiar territory. However, Alfred Gislason’s team has to compensate for a loss.
Kai Häfner is missing from the German team against North Macedonia
© IMAGO/Ostseephoto
The German national handball team is already reaching for the main round ticket in the second preliminary round game of the home European Championship. After the world record game in a football stadium at the start, the game against North Macedonia (8.30 p.m. in LIVETICKER) will be played again in familiar surroundings.
{ “placeholderType”: “MREC” }
However, the DHB team will have to do without veteran Kai Häfner, who became a father for the second time on Friday evening and will be watching the second group game day with his family. It is also clear that U21 world champion Nils Lichtlein will be in the matchday squad for the first time.
“You’re a little more in your comfort zone, where you know what happens if the referee blows the wrong whistle, what happens if you score a goal,” says Timo Kastening: “That’s why we’re looking forward to it now the handball arenas can continue. Everything is more compressed again.”
SPORT1 accompanies the entire tournament in the live ticker – all important information is also available on SPORT1.de.
{ “placeholderType”: “MREC” }
Handball European Championship 2024 live: Will the DHB team get the main round ticket?
The focus is now fully on the second European Championship preliminary round game against North Macedonia – in front of “only” 13,571 fans in the capital instead of the 53,586 in Düsseldorf.
With the move to Berlin and, if we progress, to Cologne, where the main round and the finals will be played, the sporting aspect inevitably comes into focus again. And the duel with the blatant outsider North Macedonia may have a crucial significance.
Because with another win you get an early main round ticket.
{ “placeholderType”: “MREC” }
“The North Macedonians are very hot-blooded and come into play a lot through body language,” says Kastening: “I think it’s up to us not to let that happen and to push through our game.” The right winger and his teammates know a lot It is likely that a defeat would significantly increase the pressure before the preliminary round final against record world champions France on Tuesday.
Germany’s European Championship schedule at a glance:
- January 10, 2024, 8:45 p.m. – Düsseldorf: Germany vs. Switzerland 27:14
- January 14, 2024, 8:30 p.m. – Berlin: North Macedonia vs. Germany
- January 16, 2024, 8:30 p.m. – Berlin: France vs. Germany
But the German team doesn’t waste any thought on that; national coach Alfred Gislason’s team doesn’t want to let off the accelerator even a millimeter.
“This composition at a European Championship is too extreme for that,” says Rune Dahmke and warns: “If you lose even one point at the wrong time, then it could end up costing you everything. So full focus on North Macedonia and then we’d like to surprise again against France.”