Handball: France inflicted Austria’s first European Championship defeat

In the third main round game, the sixth in the final round overall, Austria left the field as a loser for the first time at 28:33 (16:15) in Cologne despite a narrow half-time lead and a strong performance, and the multiple world and European champions France bought their semi-final ticket early. Austria can still speculate with the top 4.

Ales Pajovic’s team has 4 points in their account before the final duel with Iceland on Wednesday (3:30 p.m./live ORF 1) and was able to provisionally overtake Germany (3 points) – Hungary (4) in the evening game. Iceland (2), which is already out of the semi-final race, had already received a boost of motivation for the Austria game with a 35:30 victory over Croatia (1).

The Austrians received bad news before the game. Defense chief Lukas Herburger, architect of the ÖHB fortress, which had previously been almost impregnable, was absent due to illness. But Lukas Hutecek and Co. are not contesting that for the time being. They surprised the French, scored quick goals and were ahead 4-1 (4th). Of course, Les Bleus wasn’t impressed much. They needed a few minutes, improved in all respects, equalized for the first time to 7:7 (12th) and finally led 9:8 (15th).

The French had Hutecek and Bilyk under control

Hutecek and Bilyk were mostly kept under control by the defense. And while Austria had a lot of trouble up front, France showed their class and scored goals seemingly effortlessly. While goalkeeper Samir Belahcene was also able to excel several times, the previously strong goalie Constantin Möstl had a very difficult time and gave way to Ralf Patrick Häusle after 20 minutes.

France initially missed a few opportunities, but then increased their score to three goals for the first time three and a half minutes before the break (15:12). But Austria once again proved to be strong-nerved and tough at this European Championship. Häusle parried two of four attempts, and French inaccuracies were punished coldly with a 4-0 run – the reward was a 16:15 half-time lead.

Led by the powerful Dika Mem, France turned up the heat again after the restart in front of 19,750 spectators in the sold-out Lanxess Arena and had restored the old gap at 21:18 (38th). But Austria continued to resist. Hutecek reduced the score to 21:22 (43′) after two Häusle saves, one from a seven-meter penalty, and Weber equalized on the counterattack (43′). It remained the same: France led the way, but missed opportunities to take a clearer lead.

The goal to make it 26:27 (51st) was to be the last sniff, also because Belahcene continued to play well. The seven around old master Nikola Karabatic made it to plus 4 for the first time four minutes before the end (31:27) and brought home the victory.

Best throwers AUT: Hutecek, Bilyk 6 each, Weber 5