Victory against Argentina

ÖHB women in the main round after second World Championship victory!

(Bild: GEPA)

Austria's national women's handball team also won their second World Championship preliminary round match in Rotterdam on Sunday. The ÖHB team followed up Friday's 29:20 win over Egypt in Group E with a 27:23 (12:12) victory over Argentina to secure their place in the main round, where they will definitely take at least two points with them. Before this second phase of the tournament, they will face the favored co-hosts Netherlands again in Rotterdam on Tuesday (8:30 p.m.).

"We're very happy," began ÖHB team manager Monique Tijsterman in her initial analysis. "We won the game in defense, we were really aggressive. That was so important for the whole team for the mood." Captain Ines Ivancok-Soltic, who scored eight goals and was voted player of the match, gave free rein to her joy in the ORF interview: "We can't believe it. I'm super-proud of the team that we managed it so well."

The Austrians, who had come to the title match with only a few substitutes, impressed against the Argentinians with a strong fighting performance, as they had done two days earlier. One of the match winners was Lena Ivancok, the goalkeeper shone with numerous saves and a very good success rate of 32% of balls saved. "She was incredible," said Tijsterman. Sister Ivancok-Soltic and Klara Schlegel provided the important goals in attack.

Superior second half after an even first half
Tijsterman started with the same seven as against Egypt. However, after the score was 3:3, the match threatened to slip away from her team early on, with no goals being scored for more than seven minutes. Within ten minutes, however, the ÖHB team turned the score around with a 5:0 run to take an 8:7 lead and went into the break 12:12 ahead. Ivancok-Soltic equalized with a seven-meter penalty ten seconds before the buzzer, but the Argentinians' supposed goal to put them back in front came just a fraction of a second too late.

With a strong spell immediately after the restart, Tijsterman's team pulled 16:13 ahead and ultimately did not allow their opponents to get any closer. Although the South Americans have more experience, the young red-white-and-red side, with Ivancok backing them up, managed to hold on to their lead. The exclusion of Argentina's top scorer Elke Josselinne Karsten in the 47th minute also played into their hands.

In the head-to-head with the Argentinians, Red-White-Red thus went 3:2 in front, the last two defeats having come at the 2021 World Cup (29:31) and last March in a test in Spain (25:26). The parallel match in the group between Egypt and the Netherlands was scheduled for 20:30.