Nils Lichtlein: The man who can play handball a second sooner or later | EUROtoday

Nils Lichtlein needed to reside with excessive expectations early on in his profession. “He has the talent to play a second in the future,” mentioned sponsor Bob Hanning about his protégé. Lichtlein had simply develop into world champion with the German U21 workforce, however the 1.83 meter tall director’s big expertise was already seen and pronounced in the summertime of 2023. Now, for the primary time, the German males’s workforce is absolutely benefiting from Lichtlein’s overview and skill to anticipate on the sphere.

At the European Handball Championships in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, the center man from the German champions Füchse Berlin, the place Hanning acts as managing director, performs a greater than vital position. Lichtlein all the time comes into the sport when the Germans’ attacking sport falters and the common playmaker Juri Knorr can’t discover the best options on the board. And that has lately been the case with unpleasant regularity regardless of three wins in 4 video games. This was additionally the case on Thursday with the vital 32:30 win towards Portugal initially of the principle spherical.

There, Lichtlein not solely proved to be correct from the seven-meter level with three objectives from 4 makes an attempt, however he additionally skilfully managed the attacking sport of the workforce, which is now on the high of the Group I desk with 4-0 factors. Lichtlein, it appears, has now made the tough transition from promising expertise to strong participant within the males’s division within the number of the German Handball Federation (DHB).

Game intelligence and fast passes

In any case, he’s now getting used far more usually. He was additionally there on the World Cup a 12 months in the past and the European Championships in 2024 – however with out receiving a bigger share of the sport from nationwide coach Alfred Gislason. Lichtlein solely performed a supporting position. This is completely different within the present title fights within the far north.

“We were anything but enthusiastic about our attacking performance in the first half, the defense was very good and Andi Wolff was great the whole game. But we made nine technical errors,” mentioned Gislason, given his workforce’s weak offensive efficiency earlier than the break within the duel with Portugal. At that time it was 11:11. “In the second half, the attacking effectiveness was much higher and much better. The middle people, first Juri Knorr and then Nils Lichtlein, led it brilliantly. The ease and wit were much more noticeable in the second half.”

Lichtlein performed an enormous half on this and was in a position to repeatedly put teammates within the highlight along with his fast passing sport. Miro Schluroff particularly benefited from this. The half-left winger, who made the toughest throw in the course of the European Championships (134.1 km/h), scored seven objectives. All within the second half. “Especially before the break we made a few technical mistakes: mistakes in catching the ball, but we also had a bit of problems with the ball,” defined Lichtlein afterwards. “It was like that on both sides, I had the feeling. That’s why the attack stops, you become a little unsure of yourself. As a result, you have less power to get to the goal. Fortunately, that changed when Miro was substituted on, who didn’t give it a second thought.”

The 6,145 spectators within the Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning, Denmark, have been additionally in a position to observe the brand new standing of Lichtlein, 23 years outdated, within the workforce in one other circumstance. Instead of the common seven-meter thrower Lukas Zerbe, the nephew of Carsten Lichtlein, who gained World Cup gold with Germany in 2007, was allowed to check out. He used the primary three penalty throws and hit the fourth on the put up. The 75 p.c success price was considerably higher than the 54 p.c that Germany had achieved within the match so far.

Gislason afterwards defined why Lichtlein, who will not be notably skilled on this self-discipline within the membership or within the nationwide workforce, was allowed to throw: “In the last few days I have had three or four people throw seven meters. I always sit in the corner and watch what they do. From my point of view, Nils was by far the best. He did it well in training and Andi (Wolff – dR) and David (Späth – dR) did it very well annoyed. If he can do it against them, then he can do it against any goalkeeper.” However, Lichtlein was a bit surprised when he was told that he should start the game as a shooter.

At least the left-hander, who moved from ESV 1927 Regensburg to the youth division of Füchse Berlin in the summertime of 2016, didn’t disappoint him and withstood the strain. This is vital as a result of the sport plan on the European Championships is cruel and reliability within the sport is a crucial issue. There are not any nice alternatives to course of one thing in peace.

The nation’s greatest ball throwers will proceed their sport towards Norway on Saturday night (8:30 p.m., ZDF/Dyn and within the WELT reside ticker). Then there are the video games towards Denmark (Monday, 8.30 p.m.) and defending champions France (Wednesday, 6 p.m.). “We know that we still have three opponents coming up, all three of which are brutal,” mentioned Lichtlein. “That’s why we now need to attempt to regenerate in addition to attainable.