Strong dampener instead of tailwind for the knockout round: Germany's handball women suffered a bitter defeat at the end of the main round of the World Cup and now have to face hosts Spain in the quarter-finals.
The DHB selection lost on Sunday evening in front of 800 spectators against Denmark with 16:32 (8:13) and was shown their limits for the first time in the tournament.
With 8: 2 points, the team of national coach Henk Groener finished the main round group III as second behind the Danes (10: 0).
In the fight for the semi-finals against the World Cup runner-up from 2019 on Tuesday, a significant increase must be achieved in order to keep the tender dream of the first medal since 2007 alive.
The best German thrower in the duel with the three-time Olympic champion Denmark was backcourt player Alina Grijseels with six goals.
Unlike in the previous five tournament games, the German team was not up to date with the kick-off.
Missed throws and technical errors in the attack and gaps in the defense were responsible for a quick 4-0 deficit after seven minutes.
Only goalkeeper Dinah Eckerle was immediately on operating temperature and prevented worse with a few parades.
The DHB team scored the first goal after 9:30 minutes, when Grijseels successfully completed a quick counterattack.
However, this was not the initial spark hoped for.
The German women could hardly stand up against the aggressive cover of the Danish women - and if they did, they mostly failed because of the strong Althea Reinhardt in the Scandinavian women’s goal.
The game was over early at 3:10 after 20 minutes, especially since backcourt player Mia Zschocke saw red a little later because of a hard foul on her opponent.
In the quarter-finals, however, she is allowed to participate again.
Only in the final phase of the first half did the DHB selection come into play a little better and at least approached five goals by the break.
The already faint hope of catching up after the change was over after seven minutes at 9:19.
Again, the Groener protégés sinned in all areas and made it easy for the good-humored opponent, who is one of the medal candidates at the finals.
As a result, the German team was no longer able to raise their performance and went off the floor as the clear loser.