With a strong performance, Juri Knorr led the German national handball team to victory against Spain at the EHF Euro Cup. The DHB star had already scored ten goals at halftime on Sunday (April 30th, 2023) in a 32:31 (20:11) victory.
The fact that Juri Knorr is one of the world‘s best handball players was shown at the latest by the World Cup in January, when the 23-year-old was the tournament’s top scorer, among other things. And yet Knorr showed in the game against Spain that he can do even better. Two days after the lesson against Sweden (23:32), the backcourt player was the outstanding man.
Strong team performance – with an outstanding Knorr
Knorr scored ten goals in the first half alone. What adds even more value to this already outstanding record: it only took him ten tries. And the star of the Rhein-Neckar Löwen, whom he recently led to the cup title, not only impressed in the end, he also scored several goals.
The DHB team (hit rate 87 percent) led 20:11 after the first 30 minutes. The praise from sports show expert Dominik Klein was correspondingly high. But he also knew that one man had to be singled out. “We have to talk about one man – and that’s Juri Knorr, who is in charge. He does it absolutely brilliantly, including how he uses Johannes Golla on the circle. He showed the complete repertoire in the first half‘ said Little.
The fact that the game was so one-sided was also due to the fact that Andreas Wolff showed a strong performance in goal and the defense around Golla and Julian Köster was able to keep the Spaniards at bay. Above all, the pivots, which the Spaniards traditionally tried to use frequently, were repeatedly successfully stopped by the German defensive.
Knorr man coverage makes DHB team to create
Spain switched after the gala in the first half and man-marked Knorr. The German game suffered as a result, and the opponent also improved and was able to quickly reduce the lead to 18:23 (39th). Also because the DHB defense no longer showed the intensity of before the break. In addition, coach Alfred Gislason tried out a few things.
Germany seemed unsettled – and despite being outnumbered twice, Spain came closer. 15 minutes before the end, the DHB victory was still in danger at 25:21. But it was thanks to Golla that the lead remained comfortable, with his sixth goal he increased it to 26:21 (45 th ) – but Spain struck back directly in return.
Golla flies off the field
More bad news came shortly after. Golla deliberately played the ball with his foot when the opponent passed it and received a two-minute penalty for the third time – and was therefore shown the red card (47th). With a majority, Spain was even able to shorten the lead to 25:27 (49th).
During this phase, Germany repeatedly failed due to opposing goalkeeper Gonzalo Perez de Vargas. He not only convinced with strong reflexes, but also with good passes, in the majority Perez prepared several goals because the DHB team had increased to six field players.
Wolff’s brilliant save makes the victory clear
With a very important goal, Witzke was able to put the lead back up to three goals (28:25) (52nd), a little later Knorr came back with his goals number twelve and 13 and ensured more security in the team. But Spain would not be shaken off, always had an answer ready.
Goalkeeper Wolff then made the preliminary decision. The 32-year-old defended his team’s 31:28 lead with a foot save at head height (57th). Lukas Mertens used the 13th Wolff parade (in the end he fended off 15 opposing shots) of the game and increased (58th). Spain could only shorten to 31:32.
“That was a very important win, also because of the way” said Gislason: “Overall, it’s a shame that it was only a one-goal lead, it should have been four or five.“