Julian Köster was the German team's top scorer on Friday evening in the Jyske Bank Boxen in Herning, Denmark, with seven goals. After winning their first game against Poland, Germany now lead Group A with 4:0 points, followed by the Czech Republic (2:2) and Poland and Switzerland with 1:3 points each.
Match centre: Switzerland vs. Germany
The top three teams advance to the main round, which means the German team will continue to play in Herning from Tuesday. Olympic and reining world champions Denmark and underdogs Italy have already been confirmed as their opponents.
It is now a question of who wins the group and how many points the German team will carry into the main round as points against teams that have also qualified will be carried into the second phase of the tournament.
The Swiss, who lined up without their injured playmaker Manuel Zehnder from German champions SC Magdeburg in Denmark, was an unpleasant opponent throughout the match for the German favourites. In the 22nd minute, Olympic hero Renars Uscins scored his fourth goal to give Germany their first lead of the match but in general, Alfred Gislasons team were far from the form they showed during the Olympics.
Germany often relied on prolific goalkeeper Andreas Wollf to rescue them after defensive blunders as the Swiss became more and more courageous with the Germans looking increasingly nervous.
However, towards the end missed opportunities were to cost Switzerland dearly as Germany made their greater experience in decisive scenarios tell but Germany will certainly need to up their perfomance to challenge Denmark next week.
In the other most significant matches of the night Portugal overcame Brazil (30-26), Norway secured their passage to the main round with a win against the USA (33-17), Argentina were no match for Croatia (18-33) while Poland and the Czech Republic settled for a draw (19-19)