Superb first half lifts Germany past Slovenia

After Slovenia’s victory against Algeria in their opener of the Tokyo Handball Qualification 2020 – Men’s Tournament 3, they could have qualified for the Olympic Games with a win over Germany.

Those dreams were quashed by a relentless German team who overpowered Slovenia already in the first half to take a comfortable 36:27 victory. 

TOURNAMENT 3
Germany vs Slovenia 36:27 (22:12)

The match between Slovenia and Germany was also a match between Scandinavian coaches Ljubomir Vranjes and Alfred Gislason who faced each other for the first time with the national teams while they have met in 30 matches in their times in the German Bundesliga as coaches for the clubs SG Flensburg-Handewitt and THW Kiel. 

It was an exciting start to the match. German goalkeeper Andreas Wolff, who replaced the injured Johannes Bitter had his first save in his first action of the game and on the other side Slovenia left back Gregor Potocnik lost two one-against-one situations against Steffen Weinhold to see him suspended two times within the opening minutes. 

The hosts took the first lead of the match, but Slovenia levelled at 4:4 after a beautiful assist from centre back Miha Zarabec to line player Blaz Blagotinsek. Another assist from Zarabec to right wing Blaz Janc led to the one and only lead for the Balkan side. 

Within two minutes Germany jumped to a three-goal lead and were the dominant force for the remaining twenty minutes of the first half. Like in the match against Sweden, the German attack played very concentrated, and the defence punished every mistake from Slovenia. 

While the Rio 2016 bronze-medallists scored from nearly every position, Slovenia struggled to find their way through to the goal, ending on a 50% shooting rate after the first half, that saw Germany taking a very comfortable lead at 22:12. 

“It was a disaster from our side. We weren’t aggressive in defence and then it’s hard to score easy goals and Germany played a really good defence with a good goalkeeper,” said Rok Ovnicek to his team’s performance. 

The second half started very similar to the first, which saw Slovenia with two men down after suspensions against Matej Gaber and Darko Cingesar. Once more, German left wing Marcel Schiller was top scorer, and his goal to make it 30:18 not only gave his team the largest lead of the match but it was also his seventh goal. 

Vranjes called a time out and Gislason on the other side used the full capacity of his roster, giving goalkeeper Silvio Heinevetter, Uwe Gensheimer and Patrick Groetzki playing time on court. 

In a ten-minute span from 44th to 54th minute, Germany could not overcome the Slovenian attack, while the Balkan side enjoyed a 5:0 run, reducing the gap to 31:24. However, they could not recover from the huge deficit and Germany took the 36:27 victory.

“It was a very bad day for us. The Germans were pretty much better in everything today. I hoped that we could have won today so that it wouldn’t be such a big match against Sweden tomorrow,” said Vranjes after the match. 

While Slovenia will battle against Sweden tomorrow to take one of the coveted tickets to Tokyo, Germany will do the same when they face Algeria in their last match. 

“It’s a really important match tomorrow. We need those two points and have to fight until the end. Otherwise, we might ruin everything we have done before,” said Gislason about the final match on Sunday.  

Photo: Marco Wolf/DHB