Handball: ÖHB men lost their first Iceland test before the European Championships 28:33

The favored sixth place in the 2022 European Championships prevailed safely in Schwechat on Saturday and took their 19th victory (2 draws) in the 26th duel with red-white-red. There will be an opportunity for revenge on Monday (6 p.m./both live ORF Sport +) in Linz, before the first European Championship game against Romania on Friday.

At the beginning, birthday boy Ales Pajovic (45) decided not to experiment in the multiverse, but even with the best line-up, the ÖHB team boss’s team had problems with the individually stronger opponents from 5:5 (8th). In attack they made too many missed throws, in defense the Icelanders almost always found the gap – at times they were five goals behind. With nine saves in the first half, goalie Ralf Patrick Häusle played a major role in keeping the deficit within limits – and Austria was still in business shortly before the break, thanks to increased attacking efficiency at 13:15 (26th).

Iceland extended their lead to five goals by half-time. With Nemanja Belos, Moritz Mittendorfer, Eric Damböck and Jakob Nigg, the hosts had already used bench players. Iceland also made substitutions at the restart, with the home side trying to use the one-man set again – with the exception of Thomas Eichberger, who replaced Häusle. The deficit continued to grow, even if the guests couldn’t quite maintain their high attacking efficiency.

With a quarter of an hour to go, Iceland led 29:21. The ÖHB selection scored goals in the 7:6 variant, but almost every time they conceded the immediate goal into the empty box. In the finish, Austria even managed to reduce the score to four goals – also thanks to three goals from “oldie” Janko Bozovic (28:32/59.).