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Paris 2024 | Germany break another record to win against Slovenia and win Group A
04 Aug. 2024
Germany finished off the preliminary round at the Olympic Games with their fourth win in five matches, 36:29 against Slovenia, clinching the first place in the final standings and potentially setting up a crunch quarter-final against hosts France.
On the other hand, Slovenia finished on the second place, as they cannot go lower, due to owning the tie-breaker against Sweden and any team between Croatia and Spain, which will face off for the last ticket to the quarter-finals in the last match of the preliminary round.
PARIS 2024 OLYMPIC GAMES – PRELIMINARY ROUND
GROUP A
Germany vs Slovenia 36:29 (23:14)
Germany and Slovenia were the two teams which started with six points in Group A before the last matchday of the preliminary round and the head-to-head match was going to produce the group winner. The caveat? Finishing first might had dealt the group winners a potential match against France in the quarter-finals, as the hosts played the next match, against Hungary.
But at the Olympic Games, no team would want to concede a loss. Therefore, both Germany and Slovenia set off to try and deliver their best performance, with the first minutes of the match underlining their desire. Germany took the early lead, 3:1, but Slovenia bounced back, set off on a 3:0 unanswered run and took the lead for the first time, 7:5.
It was always going to be a question about rhythm and the team which imposed its style of play would win the match. Was it going to be Germany, with their fast-paced style? Or Slovenia which liked to wind the clock down and use a slower tempo, with an accent on defence?
The last part of the first half answered that question, as Germany went on a scoring spree, totally imposing their will and finishing the first half with 23 goals, the largest number of goals scored by Germany in history in the first half of a match at the Olympic Games.
Left wing Lukas Mertens scored four times, while right back turned right wing Kai Hafner added four more goals, to lift Germany to a nine-goal lead at the break, with the previous record set four days ago against Japan, 21 goals scored in the first half, falling.
It was all about managing energy in the second half, where Germany’s attacking output was toned down, while Slovenia failed to get anything going until the 45th minute, when it was too late.
Germany’s lead was kept in double digits throughout most of the second half, until Alfred Gislason started to tinker with his line-up, enabling a combative Slovenia side to cut the gap to only five goals, 33:28, as Germany kept as much energy as possible for the knockout phase.
Eventually, Germany secured a 36:29 win, enough to seal the first place in the group, the second time in history when Germany clinched the first place in their group at the Olympics, after Rio 2016, when they were bronze medallists.
On the other hand, Slovenia cannot go lower than the second place, courtesy their tie-breaker advantage against Sweden, or in a three-way tie against Sweden and Spain or Croatia, as this loss only affected their chance to finish first.