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Handball Championships begin

January 16, 2015

The German team, under the guidance of Dagur Sigurdsson, proved too strong for group rivals Poland. Russia come next, which will prove a test of the side's character.

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Handball-WM 2015 Polen-Deutschland
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Horcajuelo

Germany made a dream start to their 2015 Men's World Handball Championship campaign with a 29:26 win over Poland in Doha.

"I'm delighted," said head coach Dagur Sigurdsson post-match. "The guys totally deserved the victory, a super fight."

The Germans - the 2007 world champions - managed three wins from four friendly matches before the start of the tournament in Qatar.

Despite the back-and-forth nature of the opening exchanges, Germany pulled clear with their first two-goal lead in the game (8:6) through towering wide-man Steffen Weinhold.

Poland weren't able to keep the Germans in check and they sprung into a 17:11 lead at the interval with late goals from Jens Schöngarth and Uwe Gensheimer.

"We played as a team," added goalie Carsten Lichtlein. "At the beginning you can build, so hopefully that continues."

Several players from Bayern Munich - Thomas Müller, Mario Götze, Manuel Neuer and Sebastian Rode - cheered on from the stands as Germany resisted the pressure from the Poles who squared the game at 20:20.

Then, Germany pulled clear at the end with points, powered on by Weinhold and the fantastic performance of national team captain Gensheimer who took his record to seven goals for the game.

"This is a nice opening win. That was really important to gain confidence," said the team's former coach Heiner Brand. "Today, there were many small heroes out there," current boss Sigurdsson added.

On Sunday, Germany take on group rivals Russia who beat Saudi Arabia (27:17) in their opening encounter in a section, which also contains Denmark and Argentina.

rd/ng (SID, dpa)