The German handball national team suffered a surprising 27:30 defeat against Serbia at the EM in Herning. After a strong first half leading 17:13, the team collapsed in the second half, partly due to a mistake by coach Alfred Gislason. Now Germany must beat Spain on Monday to advance.
In the Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning, the German team coached by Alfred Gislason lost to Serbia 27:30 (17:13). Before 9130 spectators, mostly German and setting a record for a handball game in Denmark without Danish involvement, the DHB team started strong. Goalkeeper David Späth made seven saves until halftime, while Juri Knorr and Franz Semper drove the attack.
The Serbs, led by Berlin's Dejan Milosavljev with twelve saves, committed eight technical errors in the first half, but Germany only capitalized modestly, leading by just four goals. After the break, Germany's game fell apart: Too many missed throws, like from Renars Uscins and Marko Grgic, and weak defense led to a 20:20 tie. Andreas Wolff entered after 42 minutes, but it didn't help.
The decisive moment came in the 58th minute: Knorr scored what seemed like a 26:26 equalizer, but Gislason had pressed the timeout buzzer too early, invalidating the goal. "This is of course fatal from my perspective and entirely on me," said the Icelander. Lukas Zerbe missed a penalty shortly after, and Serbia pulled away. Captain Johannes Golla summarized: "We completely lost the thread due to the many missed throws and technical errors. We were unsettled and lost our courage." Juri Knorr downplayed it: "The timeout was appropriate for the game. But it wasn't the reason."
Following the opening win against Austria (30:27), early elimination now looms. On Monday (8:30 PM, ZDF) against Spain, Germany needs a win by at least three goals if Serbia beats Austria, to advance in the three-way tiebreaker. Miro Schluroff set a game record with a 134.09 km/h throw, but it offered no consolation.
