Macedonian team was tired, Germany deserve the win

Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona

Germany - Macedonia 28:23 (13:9)

Germany beat Macedonia with no trouble. Germany have qualified with clarity for the quarter finals, where they will play Spain or Serbia, by beating an inferior Macedonia.

The Germans can track their win to their great start to the match (5-1, 10th minute) aided by the constant loss of possession from the Macedonians. The German team took control throughout the match thanks to their success from 9 metres and the 10 saves from their keeper, Heinevetter. The biggest advantage for the Germans in the first half was 6 goals (11-5, 23rd minute). Macedonia reacted in the last minutes of the first half throught the hands of Kiril Lazarov to go into the break trailing by four goals. Things began to level out at the start of the second half when the Germans found it difficult to attack the static 6-0 defence from the Macedonians and Kiril Lazarov scored three consecutive goals. The key moment came 17 minutes from the end when Dejan Manaskov scored two goals for his team (18-16) and the Macedonians had two occasions to shorten the lead even more. A sensational save from the German keeper Heinevetter and a turnover lost them the game. Germany did not let them get away with these errors and puniched them with a 3-0 partial (all three from Schmidt) they recomposed themselves and drowned the opposition (21-16, 47th minute). The Germans dominated without trouble to the end of the match with a maximum lead of 8 goals (26-18, 56th minute)

Zvonsko Shundovski (Macedonian head coach):

"I want to congratulate the German team. It has been complicated for us today. We have tried everything. We hoped have an equalized match but we have played bad. In the second half, we have been close to equalize the score but we have made mistakes in our tactic. It is always difficult to play against Germany"

Stojanche Stoilov (Macedonia):

"We were very tired because of the last days. The German defense has been very strong and also they had a very good goalkeeper"

Martin Heuberger (German head coach):

"I'm proud of this victory.  Macedonia is a good team, they have goodplayers like Lazarov. Our pivot has been very good today, as well us our goalkeeper and the strong defense. We have had a few mistakes when the match was decided already"

Silvio Heinevetter (Germany):

"We know good Macedonian team. They don't like a fast game. They prefer a stable defense. That's the reason why we played with speed"