Germany secure dominant win over Czechia to clinch top position in Group A

Germany defeated Czechia, 29:22, with a stellar second-half performance led by goalkeeper David Späth and completed their preliminary round with three consecutive victories, heading to the main round with four points.

GROUP A
Germany vs Czechia 29:22 (11:11)

Right from the first whistle, both Germany and Czechia showed strength defensively, relying on their defensive possibilities and their goalkeepers. Only four goals were scored in the first eight minutes, with Czechia holding a narrow lead, 3:1.

Tomáš Mrkva, who had been playing at club level in Germany for the last 15 years, was exceptional early on, stopping half of Germany's attempts during that stretch. Even though the game started as a duel between the THW Kiel goalkeepers, David Späth, member of the winning Germany team at the 2023 IHF Men's Junior World Championship, took over Andreas Wolff's spot in the 14th minute and his energy lifted Germany, helping them level the score, 6:6.

Czechia's attack struggled to find their starting rhythm later, mainly with missed back court opportunities having scored only eight out of 17 attempts. During that time, Germany began to exploit their opponent's inefficiencies in the still low-scoring first half and put them forward on two occasions. But all that was short-lived.

Teams were trading leads from the 16th to the end of the first half, with Czechia having a two-goal lead at the most, while Germany was only able to take a narrow, one-goal lead to their side. One thing that was distinguishing teams in the first half was their attack duration — while Germany relied on fast transitions, completing attacks in under 27 seconds on average, Czechia leaned on their patient, structured attack, often with one-on-one duels, extending their plays to nearly 50 seconds.

Those one-on-one duels were starting to take their toll in the second half, as Germany's defence tired out Czechia's attack and pushed them into passive play multiple times. It paid off as Germany pulled fast breaks and second wave fast breaks to get to their first three-goal lead in the game (16:13).

They even further strengthened their ranks as Späth came to a 50% save efficiency and even scored a goal to set 19:14, 20 minutes before the buzzer. He continued to be instrumental for his side, saving 14 of Czechia's attempts at a 47% saving efficiency by the end of the game. The last time Czechia was close was in the 48th minute when Jakub Hrstka scored for 22:18, but only five minutes later, Germany was bolstering on a seven-goal lead and kept it until the end.

Apart from Späth, Renars Uscins with eight goals and Juri Knorr with five pushed Germany to a third-straight win and allowed them to travel to the main round with all four points. Seven goals by Dominik Solák were not enough against Germany as Czechia is going to the main round as a third-place team with one point, having a mammoth task if they are to compete for a quarter-finals berth. 

hummel Player of the Match: David Späth (Germany)