Victory not enough

Bitter! Austria eliminated in European Championship preliminary round

Sebastian Frimmel(Bild: GEPA)

A bitter European Championship exit for Austria's national handball team. The 26:25 victory against Serbia was not enough to advance to the main round. After two defeats in the first two games, they would have had to win by more than four goals. In the end, thanks to help from Germany, they finished third in the table.

Team manager Iker Romero's team beat Serbia 26:25 (12:13) in their third group game in Herning on Monday after a hard-fought battle. It was their first win at this European Championship after two defeats, but it was not enough to finish in the top two in Group A. Germany defeated Spain 34:32 at the end of the group stage to secure the pool victory. With Austria and Serbia both on two points, the head-to-head match decided in favor of the red-white-reds, allowing them to avoid fourth place. This has positive consequences for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers. While the fourth-placed teams in each group will have to enter the preliminary qualifiers in mid-March, the third-placed teams will already be in the final World Cup play-offs in mid-May. This saves them an extra round.

"We deserved it"
 "Of course, it's nice that we got a win at the end of the tournament. Wedeserved it, and Iker deserved it too after this long dry spell,"said captain Mykola Bilyk in an ORF interview after the match, alluding to Romero's first win in his seventh game as Austria's head coach. "We certainly had our chances, but as in the other games, we lacked the final touch in the end," explained Bilyk.

Hopes for third place
Only the top two teams advance to the main round. Third place means missing out on this goal, but it would have positive consequences for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers. While the fourth-placed teams in each group have to enter the preliminary qualifiers in mid-March – in Austria's case, this would mean a home and away match against Lithuania – the third-placed teams are already in the final World Cup play-offs in mid-May.

A great battle in a close game
The ÖHB team started the game well with aggressive defense, resulting in a 2-0 lead. The first goal against them did not come until the 6th minute. But the Serbian defense and goalkeeper Dejan Milosavljev also showed their quality. After ten minutes, the score was just 3-3. A two-minute penalty against Lukas Herburger put Serbia 5-3 ahead. But Romero's team kept at it and managed to regain a two-goal lead at 9-7 and 10-8.

Coach Iker Romero(Bild: Eva Manhart / kolektiff)

However, the Austrians failed to capitalize on a double power play due to inaccuracies in their finishing and a strong Milosavljev, allowing their opponents to regain the upper hand and go into the break with a 12-13 lead. The second half remained close, with the battle of attrition continuing. Neither team managed to pull away. Lukas Hutecek and his teammates took a two-goal lead for the first time at 22:20, partly because pivot Tobias Wagner was getting better and better and goalkeeper Constantin Möstl made some strong saves.

Four-goal lead needed for promotion
Austria survived a period of numerical inferiority unscathed, then took advantage of a double power play of their own to take a three-goal lead (23:20) for the first time. Sebastian Frimmel and Hutecek each missed the chance to make it plus four – the lead needed for promotion. The ÖHB aces did not let the victory slip away, despite the frenetic cheering of many German fans – Germany, for its part, was hoping for help from its neighbor. However, the margin of victory was not high enough, partly because Mykola Bilyk missed a seven-meter throw in the final minute with the score at 26:24.

"Played with a lot of heart"
So emotions remained mixed. ÖHB sports director Patrick Fölser said he was "incredibly happy that we got the win. Of course, we would have liked to have made it to the main round. But what we achieved in defense today, how we played, with so much heart. Everything we need in a game like this was there. Hats off to how they pulled themselves out of this today." There was also plenty of praise from the coach. "We fought until the last second for those four goals. In the end, it wasn't enough, but the guys showed that they are the future," said Romero. However, due to Germany's victory, even a landslide victory would not have been enough for promotion in the end.