Handball European Championship: Germany vs. Iceland live in the ticker today – the national team starts the main round in Cologne

On Thursday, January 18th, the next challenge for the German national team is on the agenda at the 2024 European Handball Championships. At the start of the main round, the DHB team has to face Iceland.

The duel has already taken place twice as part of a European Championship. In 2008, Germany defeated the Icelanders 35:27, six years earlier the DHB selection lost out (24:29).

The last meeting on the big stage took place five years ago. At the start of the main round of the 2019 World Cup, Germany emerged victorious (24:19) and then marched on to the semi-finals – a good omen for the home tournament?

Eurosport.de follows the match between Germany and Iceland live here in the ticker.

22nd minute: Always Wolff. Iceland runs the ball strongly and plays right winger Gudjonsson. He has a lot of space, but Wolff pulls his leg up and holds the ball. Köster then makes a step error in the tempo game and Gisli Kristjansson plays Arnarsson free and the pivot scores. But Heymann puts the German team back in the lead with a backcourt flare.

20th minute: Wolff first secured the German lead with the next save, but then the Icelanders lost the ball on their own. The German defense is moving well. In the attack, Hanne fails with a throw from the backcourt. Afterwards, Icelandic coach Snorri Steinn Gudjonsson takes a break.

18th minute: Uscins fails because of Hallgrimsson, Elisson converts the fast counterattack. Then Knorr, unprepared, tries the backcourt, but Hallgrimsson holds the ball safely.

16th minute: There is the next strong action from Hanne. He moves well into the gap and throws into the goal, but the referees briefly interrupt the game. After consulting, they give the gate. Iceland tries again with a hip throw from the backcourt, but Wolff is quickly down and holds the ball. On the other side, Hallgrimsson also makes a save.

14th minute: Hanne is in the game and gives Germany the first lead with a strong throw from the backcourt. But then he defends in a circle – Magnusson throws the seven-meter penalty against the crossbar.

12th minute: Wolff saves a throw from Smarason, after Golla had previously shortened the ball from the circle. And then Köster’s next breakthrough equalizes.

10th minute: The German defense is slowly coming into play. Iceland didn’t manage to score on defense, but Köster did a good job offensively and scored to make it 3-4. Even after that, the Germans are strong in the duels. Palmarsson is blocked by Köster when throwing, the referees award a seven-meter penalty for defending in the circle, but that is a clear wrong decision. Magnusson certainly transforms.

8th minute: Palmarsson scores the next goal worth seeing. While in possession of the ball, Germany played out the attack for a long time, Köster served Golla and Vidarsson was fouled so that the Icelander received a time penalty. In the majority, Kastening misses from a wide angle.

5th minute: Palmarsson hits with one of his dreaded hip throws from the backcourt. Germany can quickly reduce the deficit again and then Wolff saves a seven-meter penalty against Viggo Kristjansson. It’s important that the keeper gets into the game quickly.

3rd minute: Iceland starts with speed and scores two quick goals – in between, circle player Golla commits a striker’s foul. But then Dahmke scores to make it 1:2 – and on the other side Wolff confidently saves an outside throw.

1st minute: The game is running.

First the German national anthem is played. When the Icelandic national anthem was about to be played, an incident occurred: the hall DJ must have selected the wrong file. It is interrupted and restarted. Curious moment. German national coach Gislason will sing along to the hymn of his home country Iceland – as he previously announced.

The German national team comes into the hall and is loudly welcomed by the spectators. You can see a lot of concentration on the faces of both teams.

15 minutes before kick-off it is already really loud in the Lanxess arena. The spectators are excited for this game, everyone is looking forward to a great evening of handball.

After the opening game in Düsseldorf and the two preliminary round games in Berlin, the German team will play today in the LANXESS arena in Cologne. The teams also met there in the main round of the 2019 World Cup and Germany won 24:19. Interesting fact: Germany has never lost an international match in the LANXESS arena. At the home World Cup in 2007, Spain was defeated 27:25 in the quarter-finals, France was eliminated after the second extra time with 32:31 in the semi-finals and Poland was beaten 29:24 in the final. At the 2019 home World Cup, in addition to the win against Iceland in the main round, there was also a 22:21 win against Croatia and a 31:30 win against Spain.

Let’s take a look at the German national team squad. No change compared to the game against France. National coach Alfred Gislason is again without backcourt player Nils Lichtlein.

Even regardless of coach Gislason, the game is special for many players. Eight players in the Icelandic squad earn their money in the Bundesliga – and therefore sometimes meet their teammates. Ymir Örn Gislason meets his teammates Juri Knorr, Jannik Kohlbacher and David Späth from the Rhein-Neckar Löwen. Ellidi Snaer Vidarsson plays with Julian Köster at VfL Gummersbach, Arnar Freyr Arnarsson and Elvar Örn Jonsson, like Timo Kastening, are in the MT Melsungen squad and the three backcourt stars Gisli Thorgeir Kristjansson, Janus Dadi Smarason and Omar Ingi Magnusson meet their SC Magdeburg colleagues Philipp Weber and Lukas Mertens.

The game against Iceland is of course a special game for national coach Alfred Gislason. For the 64-year-old, it’s against his home country, which he also coached as national coach from 2006 to 2008. There will be father, brothers and uncles in the stands – Gislason said in advance that he was “very excited to see whether they would be dressed in German or Icelandic jerseys”. The national coach is considered to be close to his homeland and wants to sing both national anthems. As a player, Gislason made 190 international appearances for the Icelandic national team.

Let’s first look at the starting position in main round group 1. After Germany lost the last preliminary round game against France 30:33, national coach Alfred Gislason’s team goes into the main round with zero points. France took two points. Hungary also took two points and remains with these two points after the 29:30 defeat in the first main round game. The Austrians and Croatia took one point each because they played a 28:28 draw against each other in the preliminary round – and that’s why Austria now has a sensational three points. Iceland, today’s opponent of the Germans, fell short of high expectations in the preliminary round, suffered a clear 25:33 defeat against Hungary and, like Germany, has zero points – so both teams are under a lot of pressure, because of the six teams in After the main round, two teams qualify for the semi-finals.

Welcome to the live ticker on Eurosport.de. My name is Christian Missy and today I’m accompanying the game of the German national handball team in the first main round game of the European Championship 2024 against Iceland. Kick-off is at 8.30 p.m., the live ticker starts at 8.15 p.m. Have fun!