Two days after the disappointing opening defeat against Poland, Red-White-Red had their first win in a competitive game against Germany in their second European Championship preliminary round game for a long time. In the end, Nikola Bilyk and Co. had to admit defeat in Bratislava by 29:34 (16:15) and thus trembled for promotion to the main round of the tournament in Hungary and Slovakia.
If Poland beat Belarus in the evening game (8.30 p.m.), the chance of promotion would be gone prematurely. Otherwise, coach Ales Pajovic’s team can at least hope for the final game against Belarus on Tuesday (8.30 p.m. / live ORF Sport +). With the second success, Germany already secured the ticket for the main round.
Austria took the mistakes in the 31:36 against Poland to heart, started much more aggressively, pulled the opponent’s offensive nerve and was 3:0 in the lead after six minutes. After a positive corona test, Germany had to set one of the best with backcourt player Julius Kühn in the difficult 33:29 opening win over Belarus, but then worked their way back and was ahead for the first time at 6:5 (11th).
This was also the longest lead for Kai Häfner and Co. Austria kept winning the ball defensively – also thanks to goalkeeper Golub Doknic, who showed a lot of improvement compared to the start. And on the offensive, solutions were found with a variable game against a more offensive defense of the Germans, which was also reflected in the list of shooters: wing Sebastian Frimmel with five goals was the top thrower before the break, captain Bilyk stepped in, as did wing Robert Weber and circle runner Tobias Wagner appeared three times each.
A German team that had changed many positions had to be happy to reduce the lead to 15:16 in the final second of the first half, but got off to a good start after the restart and was up two goals for the first time in the 35th minute (19:17). But that wasn’t enough for the Germans to break away properly, Austria closed the gap again in the 40th minute to 20:20.
With the 24:21 after almost three quarters of an hour, coach Alfred Gislason’s team seemed to have brought about a small preliminary decision. But Austria defied the “shorter bench” and the final hardships, fighting back to 25:26 (48th). But that was the end of the powder. At the latest with the 30:26 (51st) the game was over for the favorites, the result was ultimately quite clear.
Source: Nachrichten
