2024-01-12 18:49:01
Austria’s handball men made a successful start to the European Championships in Germany. On Friday, Mykola Bilyk and Co. had a lot of trouble once morest outsiders Romania, but finally won clearly 31:24 (15:14). This meant they might also gain self-confidence for the difficult tasks ahead once morest Croatia (Sunday) and Spain (Tuesday, both 8.30 p.m./live ORF Sport +). One of the two games must be won in order to reach the main round in Group B.
In front of 13,293 spectators in the sold-out SAP Arena in Mannheim, Austria struggled in a generally tough game in which neither the front nor the back went as desired for a long time. The Red-White-Red made life difficult for themselves with numerous missed throws – a total of 14 in the first half. The ÖHB team missed four opportunities from the seven-meter point alone and on the counterattack before the break. They had the chance to extend the lead to three goals several times, but then they always let their nerves falter.
In their own half, the 6-0 defense was not as strong as expected and allowed too many shots. It was not least thanks to goalie Constantin Möstl that we didn’t fall behind by more than one goal (3:4/10th, 6:7/16th, 7:8/17th, 8:9/18th). . In his 18th international match, the 23-year-old defused ten balls in the first half alone and played a major role in the narrow 15:14 half-time lead. On the opponent’s side, Andrei Negru (14th) and Liviu Caba (25th) had already been sent off the pitch with direct red cards following fouls.
Immediately following the restart, Ralf Patrick Häusle also scored his second parried seven-meter penalty. Möstl, who was difficult to beat until the end, parried the next three Romanian attempts. During this phase, Lukas Hutecek, Sebastian Frimmel and Boris Zivkovic managed to take a four-goal lead for the first time (18:14/35.) and thus laid the foundation for success. The Romanians mostly struggled with Austria’s now more offensive defense, but they still had too many failed attempts.
It remained exciting. Even with the 20:16 from a beautiful “flyer” by Janko Bozovic, who had just been substituted (13th), the spell was not broken, Romania came back to 18:20 (45th). However, it was to be the last gasp for the Eastern Europeans, who were represented at a European Championship for the first time in 28 years. The game was over at the latest with 24:19 (49th) and, as in the two European Championship qualifying games once morest Romania (32:36 and 35:30), there was victory in the end.
Handball European Championship, preliminary round, group B, 1st round: Austria – Romania 31:24 (15:14). Best throwers in Austria: Frimmel 6, Wagner, Hutecek 5 each, Bilyk, Weber 4 each
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