Austria’s handball players delivered one of the best performances in their recent history: Team boss Ales Pajovic’s selection sensationally scored a point once morest Croatia on Sunday in Mannheim with a score of 28:28 (12:14).
“I’m very, very proud,” said the head coach, full of praise for his selection. For him, the key to success was clear: “I’ve never seen such good 6-0 coverage from us before.”
“Huge respect to Austria, that was a great game,” Croatia great Domagoj Duvnjak said of a fair result. “Austria played outstandingly, they fought until they dropped.”
Duvnjak and Co. initially continued once morest Austria where they left off following the impressive 39:29 opening win over vice-European champions Spain: with power handball. Driven by the lion’s share of the approximately 13,000 spectators in the SAP Arena, the Croatians took a 5-1 lead in the first five minutes.
Led by top scorer Mykola Bilyk (7 goals) and veteran Robert Weber (6), the ÖHB men, who initially seemed overwhelmed, caught themselves, acted more aggressively in defense thanks to a very strong Michhael Miskovez and were finally able to equalize for the first time following 20 minutes (9:9). .
The game had something special for Bilyk, Lukas Hutecek and Tobias Wagner, as they met Ivan Martinovic, with whom they had once grown up at Fivers Margareten. The Vienna-born Martinovic, who has now matured into one of the best right-wing development players in the world at Melsungen, once decided once morest Austria and in favor of Croatia, his parents’ homeland. The 26-year-old, who was named player of the game once morest Spain, had to leave the field early yesterday with a shoulder injury.
After the break, Sebastian Frimmel (39′) gave Austria the lead for the first time with 18:17.
While Pajovic made few changes in the squad due to a lack of depth, his counterpart Goran Perkovac gave his players more breathing space. But the Austrians fought for every ball and made up a three-goal deficit in the last four minutes.
Weber tied the game at 28:28 with his goal. “We wanted to take points away from a big player, and we managed to do that today. There is an incredible amount of potential in this team,” said Bilyk following his 100th international match.
The performance once morest Croatia fueled hope on the red-white-red side that a surprise might be achieved in the decider on Tuesday once morest Spain (8.30 p.m. on ORF Sport Plus). On Sunday, the Iberians redeemed themselves following their debacle once morest Croatia with a clear 36:24 win over Romania.
Author
Reinhold Pühringer
Sports editor
Reinhold Pühringer
