Actually, it’s already over for Austria’s handball team at the European Championship. But today’s final duel in Group D (8.30 p.m. / live ORF Sport +) with Belarus is not meaningless. A favorable seeding for the subsequent World Cup qualification is at stake.
Austria had already lost the chances of promotion to the main round of the European Championship on Sunday with the defeat against Germany. “I was already thinking that this is the day we will beat Germany,” said team boss Ales Pajovic after the 29:34. A game in which you brought an opponent to the brink of defeat in upheaval. In the end, however, strength and class were missing, after the disappointing 31:36 tournament start against Poland, the title fights were over. “Of course I’m disappointed, you always want to see progress,” said wing veteran Robert Weber, who celebrated historic eighth place at the home European Championship two years ago. “Now we have to make sure we finish in the top 15.”
The importance of the final game against the physically strong Belarusians goes beyond a mere training match. “It will be a brutal question of will,” says Sebastian Frimmel. A win would eventually make it into the top three group thirds. And so that the qualifying play-off for the 2023 World Cup tends to be easier.
Source: Nachrichten
