Yesterday at the Handball European Championships in Bratislava, Austria lost 29:34 against Germany, their second defeat in the second preliminary round. The red-white-red selection sniffed the first win against their big neighbors since 2014 – and was still leading 16:15 at halftime.
“More fire” was what ÖHB team boss Ales Pajovic wanted from his players after the 31:36 at the start against Poland. These obeyed and began briskly against the favored Germans, who had to do without the corona-positive regular player Julius Kühn. Veteran Robert Weber scored the 100th European Championship goal of his career to make it 3-0. After that, the German selection woke up. Austria, led by Sebastian Frimmel – with nine goals the best ÖHB thrower – held against it.
Strong goalkeepers
After the weak defensive performance against Poland, Pajovic reacted and put Trauner Alexander Hermann in the middle block. “We are much more compact in coverage,” was the conclusion of ÖHB sports director Patrick Fölser. In addition, goalkeeper Golub Doknic fended off almost 40 percent of German throws in the first 30 minutes.
After the change of sides, however, the Austrians lost exactly these strengths. The Germans, from whom goalkeeper Till Klimpke recorded 14 saves, only opened up by more than three goals in the last ten minutes. “In the end it was also a power problem. It would have been possible to beat Germany today,” said Pajovic, who praised his team’s improvement. “If we had played like that against Poland, we would already have two points.”
Lukas Hutecek was only able to follow the game from the stands. The European Championship tournament came to an early end for the Lemgo legionnaire due to an ankle injury suffered against Poland (six week break).
After Austria’s second defeat in the second preliminary round game, the chance of the top two place required for promotion is almost gone. It also depended on the Poland-Belarus game in the evening, which ended after this issue went to press.
Tomorrow the ÖHB-Sieben meets Belarus at the end of the preliminary round (8.30 p.m. live on ORF Sport Plus).
Source: Nachrichten
