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Cairo (dpa) - Historic bankruptcy at the World Cup farewell instead of hopeful Olympic casting: Germany's handball players return from the title fights in Egypt after a sobering 23:23 (11:12) against Poland in 12th place in the World Cup with the worst placement in the association's history .

At the disappointing farewell performance on Monday in Cairo, Philipp Weber and David Schmidt were the best throwers for the team of national coach Alfred Gislason with four goals each.

The worst performance of a DHB selection so far was ten years ago with eleventh place in Sweden.

Even before the Poland game, the newly formed German team after nine cancellations had missed the quarter-finals prematurely due to defeats against Hungary and European champions Spain.

Now on Tuesday they will not only return home from a major event for the fifth time in a row without a medal, but also without the hoped-for sense of achievement at the end of the World Cup.

The last precious metal for the DHB selection so far was in 2016 with an Olympic bronze.

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The summer games are also the next big goal, for which the Gislason troops first have to qualify in Berlin in mid-March.

The game against Poland was therefore already planned as a test for the four-way tournament with Sweden, Slovenia and Algeria, in which two Tokyo tickets will be awarded.

But the chance to gain self-confidence for the difficult task was not used.

Regular goalkeeper Andreas Wolff, who was hardly able to convince in the course of the tournament, saved a seven-meter right at the beginning.

However, that remained a very rare sense of achievement for the European champion from 2016, because the people in front of him did not get up to operating temperature.

There were often large gaps in the defense, which the Poles gratefully used.

In addition, many chances were neglected in the attack.

The German players failed ten times in the first half to Poland's goalkeeper Adam Morwaski.

The hit rate in the first 30 minutes was only 46 percent.

After eight minutes there was only one hit, in the 19th minute the Gislason troops were behind with three goals at 6: 9.

The national coach didn't like the hustle and bustle on the floor at all.

Nevertheless, the 61-year-old Icelander only took a break four minutes before the break to take corrective action.

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Even after the move, it didn't get any better.

For six minutes there was no hit, which annoyed Gislason and required another time-out at 11:15.

"You made four technical mistakes, one more stupid than the other," he scolded loudly.

But it was a long time before his charges caught up.

Only ten minutes before the end did the German team catch up again at 18:19 and equalize shortly afterwards.

In the final phase, Marcel Schiller threw a seven-meter throw at 22:22, a little later he hit from the outside.

But it wasn't enough to win.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210125-99-167589 / 2

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Squad of German handball players

Game schedule of the German handball players

Presidium of the German Handball Federation

Board of the German Handball Federation

Schedule and groups Handball World Cup

The German squad against Poland at a glance