Germany and 100 EHF EURO highs and lows

Germany will be the fifth side to reach that milestone, after France, Spain, Croatia and Denmark in the previous editions. Sweden will be the next team to cross that bar in their first game of the main round later this week.

It is now time to step into the time machine and remember the moments that built the history at the EHF EURO for Germany.

3 June 1994

The EHF EURO story started 30 years ago and Germany were part of it from the start. The German team actually played the first game of the first ever EHF EURO, played in Portugal. In Almada, led by coach Michael Biegler, Germany lost by one against Belarus (23:24). They had to wait until the last game of the preliminary round to wait their first ever win, against Romania (25:19). Led by Stefan Kretzschmar, Volker Zerbe and Christian Schwartzer, they grabbed the ninth place of a competition won by Sweden.

6 June 1998

Germany had to wait four more years to win their first ever EHF EURO medal, and that was in Italy in 1998. With Jan Holpert and Henning Fritz behind the posts and Daniel Stephan as the main offensive asset, Germany defeated Russia in extra time of the bronze medal match (30:28) to finally step on the podium. Daniel Stephan also got a reward for his overall performance, going home with the MVP award, while Sweden took gold for the third time in a row.

1 February 2004

Ivano Balic might have taken the MVP trophy home, but the Croatian legend could not do anything against the German defensive power at EHF EURO 2004. Despite losing one game and drawing once in the preliminary round, the German side proved to be unstoppable once the main round started. Denmark were defeated in the semi-final (22:20) while hosts Slovenia fell too short in the final (30:25). Germany also had two players in the All-star Team of the tournament: Henning Fritz as goalkeeper and Volker Zerbe as right back.

1 June 2013

That day, Germany easily beat Israel 38:19, but that was not enough. After being beaten by Montenegro twice and also by Czechia, Germany did not qualify for EHF EURO 2014. A disaster for a team that had qualified for the first 10 editions of the qualification. But still, they found the strength to bounce back.

31 January 2016

Almost 12 years to the day after their first title, Germany added a second EHF EURO to their record. Led by an incredible Andreas Wolff in goal, who saved 16 shots in the final, Germany built their momentum game after game. But in the final against Spain, their defensive strength made wonders. A 24:17 win later, they were lifting the trophy for the second time, and Uwe Gensheimer walked through the mixed zone with a red mullet.

10 January 2024

If the 27:14 win against Switzerland will not go down as the best match in handball history, it created plenty of emotions among the spectators who were in the MERKUR SPIEL-ARENA that evening. A total of 53,586 of them filled the seats of the arena for the opening games of the EHF EURO 2024, setting a new record for attendance for a handball match.

16 January 2014

Germany face France in the last game of the preliminary round – what will happen is yet to be seen, but no doubt, they will continue making EHF EURO history.