The system with which the Germans saved themselves in the main round was quite error-prone: "We practiced it ten minutes before the game," said national coach Markus Gaugisch.

The seven against six is ​​almost always an emergency option in handball.

And with a team that seemed shaky anyway, acting without your own goalkeeper was risky.

But Gaugisch dared to do it from the 46th minute.

The restless Germans got a little more security on Wednesday evening in Podgorica and then at least shook their way into the next round of the European women's handball championship with a 21:23 win against Spain.

The day after, in the new accommodation in Skopje, Macedonia, the horror of the previous evening was still noticeable.

Because Gaugisch's team had looked into the abyss - a German goal less and a Spanish one more, and the Poles would have progressed from this preliminary round group together with Montenegro and Spain and not Germany.

Tailor-made result

For most of the season, the DHB selection tried to find a way to get through against the nimble, tough, fast-shifting Spanish defence.

It became a single spasm - and so Xenia Smits' goal with 24 seconds to go to the final score was a great relief.

"The gap was there and I jumped through it," said Smits.

Poland had previously lost against Montenegro, Germany and Spain delivered a tailor-made result: At the EHF, one should consider only playing parallel games on the last day of the preliminary round.

Neither Smits nor Gaugisch got involved in this discussion.

"We all knew how badly we could lose," said Smits.

"I only had our victory in mind," said the national coach.

Without this success, the goals are now different: The European Championship semi-finals are out of reach, because Germany goes into the further competition without points.

However, a decent placement would be important in order to reach one of the qualifying tournaments for the 2024 Olympic Games.

This Friday (6:00 p.m. on sportdeutschland.tv), on Tuesday and Wednesday the game continues against the Netherlands, France and Romania.

Gaugisch faces the tricky task of sparing his frequent player Alina Grijseels, also relieving the two wingers, overall making more use of the squad, as he did on Wednesday when he brought Lisa Antl to the circle and she threw three goals.

He dislikes a lot: “We find it difficult to make decisions.

We can't get the game to flow.” And goalkeepers Katharina Filter and Isabell Roch are rarely of any help either.

Another disappointing tournament is on the horizon.