Handball European Championship: The mode does not allow a false start

Two days after the brilliant start with the handball world record match between hosts Germany and Switzerland (27:14) in front of 53,586 spectators in the Düsseldorf football arena, Austria’s men’s national team will take on Romania in the EURO on Friday (6 p.m., ORF 1). -happened.

Ales Pajovic’s protégés, who are favored in this duel in the 13,200-capacity SAP Arena in Mannheim, have to be wide awake from the first second; a false start is forbidden against the supposedly weakest opponent in Group B of four.

The mode only moves the top two into the main round (from January 18th in Cologne), a loss of points would also mean a loss of points before the other matches against Croatia (Sunday, 8.30 p.m., ORF Sport+) and Spain (Tuesday, 8.30 p.m., ORF Sport+). moral dampener. “We have to function,” emphasized Lemgo legionnaire Lukas Hutecek.

“It’s the most mentally difficult game,” says ÖHB captain Mykola Bilyk (THW Kiel), who urgently warns against the Romanians, who are represented at a European Championship finals for the first time in 28 years.

Barcelona legend on the bench

This is mainly due to a real “coaching fox” on the underdog’s bench: Xavier Pascual Fuertes (55), who celebrated eleven championship titles and three Champions League triumphs with FC Barcelona between 2009 and 2021, wields the scepter for the Romanians, who only have two Legionnaires (from Benfica Lisbon) in their squad. One of them, Demis Grigoras, exudes optimism: “I really believe we can pull off a surprise at this EURO.”

The statistics speak for Austria. In the most recent European Championship qualification there were two relatively confident victories – 36:32 at home, 35:30 away. Of course, the third trick in a row should now be successful. “We know that we have a brutal group. But my boys believe that they can make it to promotion,” said Coach Pajovic, who led the red-white-red team to a historic eighth place in 2020.

Two years ago in Slovakia things didn’t go as planned; not a single point was scored against Germany, Poland and Belarus. Even then, the luck of the draw wasn’t on the Austrians’ side.

Germany, with its outstanding goalkeeper Andreas Wolff – who remained without a goal for around ten minutes before the break – has positioned itself for the “home gold” mission. “Anyone who competes here and doesn’t want to become European champion has missed his job,” said the man of the evening, who was celebrated with a standing ovation, in plain language.

There was an absolute goosebumps atmosphere in Düsseldorf, the old attendance record from 2014 (44,189 fans at Handball Day in Frankfurt) was impressively pulverized. The match itself did full justice to the setting from the home team’s perspective.

“Germany worked itself into a frenzy and literally pushed its desolate opponent (Switzerland, note) against the wall,” commented the “Sportschau” on the event.