European Handball Championship

Austria against top favorite Norway from 6 pm

Always one Norwegian too many in the vicinity ...

(Bild: GEPA)

The pre-Christmas miracle failed to materialize: Austria's handball women were clearly beaten by defending champions Norway 24:38 (14:23) in the second game of the home European Championship in Innsbruck on Saturday!

There was no hiding the difference in class in the duel with the nine-time title holders, but the game was only a "bonus game" for the Red-White-Red anyway. They will have to deliver again on Monday (6 p.m.) in the showdown for promotion against Slovenia. The rivals for a ticket to the main round in Vienna beat Group E runners-up Slovakia 37:24 (18:10) - just like Austria two days earlier - and received a morale boost for the decisive encounter.

"I know that we will play in the main round!"
ÖHB team manager Monique Tijsterman spoke of a "difficult game. They (the Norwegians, ed.) are so strong in the 1:1. If we don't work together in defense, it won't work. We have to push more in defense," said the Dutchwoman, criticizing the defensive work. "We need to be sharper on Monday (against Slovenia, ed.)." But Tijsterman also saw positives. "We never put our heads down, we kept fighting." She was confident about the Slovenia game: "I know we'll play in the main round."

The hosts got off to a respectable start in the Olympic Hall, which was packed with 3,730 spectators and slightly better than Thursday's opening win over Slovakia. Many of the attacks were successfully completed. They repeatedly got into good finishing positions with quick actions against the physically clearly superior Norwegians, and the interplay with pivot Josefine Hanfland also bore fruit on several occasions.

There was not much going on at the front and only a few passes were enough at the back
The fact that they had virtually no access to Henny Reistad and Co. in defense and goalkeeper Lena Ivancok was also unable to do much, did not - yet - have such a noticeable effect. After a quarter of an hour, Norway were already 12:7 ahead, but Johanna Reichert and Co. fought their way back to 11:14 (19th minute). But then they had to let the game slip away. There was not much going on in front and the opponents were usually able to score with just a few passes at the back.

However, Red-White-Red refused to surrender without a fight despite trailing by nine goals at the break. The gap was kept constant for at least a quarter of an hour, with Antonija Mamic now making her presence felt in goal. However, the nine-time title winners extended their lead a little in the final period - and claimed a completely unchallenged 11th victory in their 14th competition match against Austria with three draws.

ÖHB prop Josefine Hanfland analyzed what she described as an intense game. "They are physically very strong. We didn't manage to get a grip over the whole game," explained the legionnaire in the ORF interview. "Now we have to get our heads up again. The decisive game is on Monday and we want to win there."