Unleashing the Beast: When Andi Wolff was unbeatable

To continue the animal theme, Germany were dark horses - or perhaps even underdogs - for the EHF EURO title in 2016, having not taken a EURO medal of any colour since their only previous European gold in 2004.

Every EHF EURO title since 2004 had gone to France or Denmark, who were favourites in Poland once again, while Croatia and Spain were most people's best bets to break that duopoly. Germany were rarely part of the conversation.

But, as EHF journalist Björn Pazen explains in Unleashing the Beast, that played perfectly into Germany's hands, "The confidence was there, when they took the trip to Poland. Because they just said, 'We don't have anything to lose.'"

Confidence is one thing, but in goalkeeper Wolff, they had someone who was ready for the biggest stage, as Andi himself says, "I always dreamed of being part of these tournaments. All of those things, that you dream of as a kid that you set as your goals, they suddenly got real there."

Those dreams could have become a nightmare very early on; Germany came up against Spain in the opening match, falling to a three-goal defeat, "In this match Spain was just better. You just have to admit it. Of course everyone was
imagining the start differently. Especially as you have to say, on this day,
we were without a chance." 

Things were not about to get any easier, with Sweden and Slovenia still to come in the group and the very real possibility that Germany might not make it to the main round.

But the Sweden match was where things began to turn in Germany's favour, unleashing their secret weapon, Andi Wolff. "Andi starts playing an unbelievable match. In the second half he saved, I think, everything that's of any meaning," remembers Pazen, as Germany won an enthralling fixture by a single goal.

From then on, Germany were flying, beating Slovenia, Hungary, Russia and Denmark to sail through the main round with Wolff integral in every match. But the goalkeeper was quick to praise the players in white stood in front of him, "We were young, naive, undiscerning and saying we will win this, we will work, we will fight, we will run, we will do everything to win! And that probably was the first indication that this group of players might be destined for more."

Another nail-biter followed in the semi-final, as Germany beat Norway after overtime, setting up a rematch with the only team to beat them so far, Spain.

What had gone before, though, was not important to Wolff, "We were aware they were the only team, that was able to beat us before. Still, I believe once you are in the final, everyone starts at 0."

It is that ability to eliminate everything from before, and even what is happening around him, that allows Wolff to enter that "beast mode", which was never as prevalent as it was during the EHF EURO 2016 final in Kraków.

"Hyper-focus."

"In this moment, there is nothing else going on in the world. There are, I don't remember exactly, let's say 16,000 or 17,000 fans in the arena. But they are all faded out. There is just one ball and the match in front of you. Nothing else on this planet could interest you in that moment."

Spain scored just six times in the first half as they came up against the wall that was Andi Wolff. That solid platform allowed Germany to secure a fairly comfortable 24:17 victory, leaving their opponents stunned.

"Looking at the statistic, it has never happened, that at a Men's EHF EURO, a team after 30 minutes only scored six goals," says Pazen. "On the other side there is Andi Wolff, with 54 per cent save percentage. It was almost like, I think for the Germans, if it wasn't the EHF EURO final, they would have said, 'Let's have some fun, let the Spaniards shoot from everywhere, Wolff is going to save it.' No, the defence was of course also very good, but the Spanish players really shattered at Andi Wolffs saves. I have never seen anything like it.

"Julen Aguinagalde said it best afterwards, as he missed a lot of shots against Wolff in this final. He said the nice sentence: 'You get the ball and this Wolff just gets bigger and bigger and bigger.'"

Unsurprisingly, Andi Wolff was named All-star goalkeeper for the tournament, in which he saved 36 per cent of the 224 shots he faced. Germany are yet to pick up any more medals since 2016, but with Wolff in the squad again, one cannot rule out the beast being unleashed again.

Photos © SPORTISSIMO