Victory against Georgia

Austria’s handball players secure ticket for World Championship 2025

Great jubilation for Hutecek and Co.

(Bild: APA/EVA MANHART)

Austria's handball players have secured their place at the 2025 World Championship without any problems. Three days after their somewhat uneven performance in the 27:25 win in Tbilisi, Mykola Bilyk and Co. lived up to their role as favorites on Sunday in Vienna and defeated Georgia 37:31 (21:17) in the play-off second leg. Team boss Ales Pajovic's ÖHB team thus qualified for the eleventh major event since 2010.

"I'm just happy - great hall, great atmosphere," said ÖHB team manager Ales Pajovic, pointing out that he was able to field more players than in January at the European Championships. "We only played the European Championship with seven or eight players. Now we've tried a lot. Everything worked well, the boys did a great job. We have breadth in our team, which will help us in the future."

The draw for the final round in Croatia, Denmark and Norway (January 14 - February 2) will take place on May 29 in Zagreb.

(Bild: GEPA/GEPA pictures)

Following the honoring of rookie wing Robert Weber for his selection to the All-Star team of the historic January European Championship (8th place), Austria once again did not have an easy game in the first half. An early 6:2 lead (9th) dwindled to 8:7 (13th), and in a high-scoring first half the Georgians, who were represented at the recent European Championships for the first time at the finals, always remained within striking distance.

(Bild: GEPA/GEPA pictures)

While the shooting efficiency was clearly improved compared to Thursday and Georgia's goalkeeper Zurab Tsintsadze was not a big factor this time, the Red-White-Red were too often unable to control the dynamic attacks of the visitors. However, substitute players such as two-goalkeeper Florian Kaiper and right-back Markus Mahr were able to make the desired impact. In the final stages of the first half, the home side once again managed to pull away by four goals. Sebastian Frimmel scored seven times, making him Austria's best scorer.

(Bild: GEPA/GEPA pictures)

Georgia, led once again by the prolific Giorgi Tskhovrebadze, did not allow themselves to be completely shaken off after the restart, but were five goals behind for the first time in the 39th minute (27:22). Austria's victory was already in sight, but they repeatedly missed opportunities to take a clearer lead. The time had finally come at the start of the final ten minutes. From 33:27 onwards, Red-White-Red played their World Cup ticket safely home and were also able to give players from the second row minutes on court.

"We did an incredibly good job as a team"
"It's incredibly nice and it's a lot of fun to play in this hall," said captain Bilyk, expressing his delight at the performance, the qualification and the atmosphere. "We're delighted to have made it to the World Cup today. We were much stronger in attack today and made our chances count. We were also a bit better in defense. All in all, we did an incredibly good job as a team." Circle player Tobias Wagner put it in a nutshell: "We're simply better than Georgia in terms of quality."

Play-off for the World Handball Championship, second leg: Austria - Georgia 37:31 (21:17)

Best scorers AUT: Frimmel 7, Hutecek 6, Bilyk, Wagner 5 each - first leg 27:25

Austria qualified for the 2025 World Championship in Croatia, Denmark and Norway (January 14 - February 2) with a total score of 64:56.

Preliminary round draw on May 29 in Zagreb.