You would expect a sentence like this from football coach Guardiola rather than handball coach Gislason: “I love this team,” said the latter late on Tuesday in Berlin. And that sounded unusual because the Icelander Gislason, in contrast to his non-expert Catalan colleague, does not tend to go to extremes, at least not when it comes to praise. The reason for the emotional confession was the question about the two hearts in his chest when the German team competes in the main round of the European Championship in Cologne this Thursday (8.30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the European Handball Championship, on ZDF and on Dyn). starts – with the game against Iceland.
You will see Alfred Gislason, 64 years old and born in the port city of Akureyri in Northern Iceland, in an emotionally touched state, singing both anthems, knowing several family members in the stands, “a very special game for me”. But that, he said, is exactly what makes him want to avoid losing even more urgently than he already does.