EURO journey comes to an end

“We feel empty, it just hurts!”

Austria were stopped by Slovenia.

(Bild: GEPA/GEPA pictures)

Austria's handball players lost 24:25 to Slovenia after a thriller. The home EURO thus ends after the preliminary round.

Over and out. For Austria's handball players, the home EURO ends after the preliminary round. They would have needed a win against Slovenia, but were beaten 24:25 after a thriller in Innsbruck yesterday.

Right from the start, it was the "battle of attrition" predicted by team boss Monique Tijsterman. Austria went ahead (6:3 after twelve minutes), but Slovenia hit back immediately. Our neighbors equalized for the first time at 7:7 and took the lead for the first time after twenty minutes (8:7). The match swung back and forth, with 13:13 almost the "logical" score at the break.

A draw was not enough for the Austrians, so the 3,341 spectators in the Olympic Hall urged their team on even more in the second half. But the Slovenians, who finished eleventh at this year's Olympic Games in Paris, always had an answer at the ready. They took a three-goal lead for the first time at 17:14 (38'). Austria could rely on goalkeeper Antonija Mamic in this phase, who kept her team in the game with important saves, and the score was 20:20 with 15 minutes to go.

The Austrians were left hanging their heads after the end.

(Bild: GEPA/GEPA pictures)

Complete emptiness
While the match had already been a thriller up to that point, it now became a "Thriller in Tirol". Ines Ivancok-Soltic made it 21:20 and finally turned the arena into a madhouse. But then nerves played tricks on the Austrians. With the score at 23:23, Ivancok-Soltic put a seven-meter penalty next to the goal (57') and Ana Pandza committed a forward foul at 23:24. They were also unlucky with two shots against the bar, Slovenia played more routinely and in the end Austria suffered a bitter 24:25 and their EURO journey came to an abrupt end. "It's hard to find words, there were a few too many mistakes," said Ivancok-Soltic with tears in his eyes. "We feel empty. It just hurts very, very much," said Josefine Hanfland.

While the Slovenians celebrated, the Austrians crept into the dressing room. "We fought to the end, it was the little things that decided the game," analyzed Tijsterman. "We really wanted to give the fans the win." So the dream of the main round in Vienna was dramatically shattered.