Germany remain unbeaten at Spain 2021 with a dominant second half performance that propelled them to a win against fellow European side Slovakia, 36:22.

GROUP E
Slovakia vs Germany 22:36 (12:17)

The scoring started early and often for the Germans who already had two goals in the first two minutes of the game thanks to Meike Schmelzer. By the fifth minute of the match, it was already a four-goal lead for Germany and Slovakia coach Pavol Streicher was forced to call a time-out.

Whatever he said in that timeout worked as the Slovak side came out with a 4:1 run. Unfortunately, they could not build on that momentum and by half-time they were trailing by five.

The second half started much like the first. Once again Schmelzer netted Germany’s first two goals to increase the lead to four. From then on, Germany’s offence found their stride while Slovakia had no answers on both ends of the court. Germany outscored Slovakia by nine in the second half.

Germany’s Alina Grijseels led all scorers in the game with six goals, followed by Schmelzer and Johanna Stockschlader with five each. The top scorers for the Slovaks were Reka Bizikova and Vladimira Bajciova with four goals each.

With the win, Germany are through to the main round, while Slovakia must win their game against rivals the Czech Republic on Monday to stay alive in the competition. One thing is certain, they must get better in defence as they are allowing 35.5 goals per game so far.  

hummel Player of the Match: Xenia Smits, Germany

Photo: RFEBM / J. Navarro