Much has been said and written about Juri Knorr's abilities.

But so far you have not gotten rid of the feeling that national coach Alfred Gislason can do little with him.

At the World Cup in Egypt, Knorr alternated between very good and very bad scenes, if he was allowed to play for regular playmaker Philipp Weber at all.

The 21-year-old had not played a role in this Olympic handball tournament.

What the national team has in the highly gifted youngster could be seen on Sunday lunchtime: Knorr put the stamp on the last group game of the DHB selection against Brazil - at the end of the first and the beginning of the second half, self-confident and dangerous for goals, he was the guarantor with six goals 29:24 victory over the South Americans. Knorr's goals and the parades of goalkeepers Johannes Bitter and Andreas Wolff secured the Germans a place in the quarter-finals. A first goal has thus been achieved.

In the knockout round, Gislasons Seven will meet Egypt on Tuesday (11.45 a.m. in the FAZ live ticker for Olympia, on ZDF and on Eurosport).

“That was definitely not a feast for the eyes,” said right winger Timo Kastening, “but today it was all about qualifying for the quarter-finals.

We did that. "National coach Gislason summed it up:" The dream of the semifinals remains. "

The starting position was clear

Egypt only lost to Denmark in the preliminary round and is a physically strong and unconventionally playing opponent - at the home World Cup they only lost in the quarter-finals after two extra times against title holder Denmark. Gislason's team will have to improve to reach the semifinals and medal games. On the positive side, it should be emphasized that after the narrow opening defeats it withstood the pressure and thus achieved the turnaround.

The starting position before the game was clear. With Norway's victory over France, Germany could not lose. So the game resembled a round of 16. And that began very laboriously from a German point of view. Ball losses in the attack and passages that were seldom played to the point let the Brazilians take an 8: 6 lead in the 19th minute. Weber, who has done well in the tournament so far, could not get away with either circle passes or his own throws - and so Gislason brought his youngest player. “We knew that if we lost we would go home. You saw that at the beginning, ”said Gislason.

He was spot on with his move, because Bitter held litter after litter (especially from the district against Silva), and Knorr scored twice. Germany finally got into the tempo game and made the 16:12 break with goals from Julius Kühn and twice Uwe Gensheimer. Gislason's switch from defensive to offensive defense with Hendrik Pekeler at the top had helped - because in one-on-one from close range, Bitter was much stronger than the Brazilians, who made almost all goals from the back area.

Except for 21:14, the Germans moved away after the break, during which the frequent players Paul Drux and Steffen Weinhold were allowed to rest.

Despite a few mistakes, their representatives Kühn and Kai Häfner did a lot better this time.

In the last ten minutes, captain Gensheimer failed to make things clear with two false throws from outside, and Brazil came up to 27:24 (55th minute).

Extra flaps for Knorr

It didn’t get any tighter because substitute Andreas Wolff held great three times.

Together, the German goalkeepers had a quota of 37 percent held balls.

Johannes Bitter said: “In the end, we managed to do this very confidently.

Despite one or two stupid actions, I never had the feeling that we could lose. "

The experienced players then gave Juri Knorr an extra pat on the shoulder. He had contributed to the victory with surprising and courageous throws, this time also took his foot off the gas when it was advisable - this performance will be appreciated at the Rhein-Neckar Löwen in Mannheim, as the native of Flensburg moved from GWD Minden at the beginning of July to the lions. The Germans will urgently need his courage and agility against the tough and strong Egyptians.