Narrow defeat in the final

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They missed out on gold, but Austria's women can also celebrate silver.

(Bild: worldsportpics.com/Frank Uijlenbroek)

Both Austria's women's and men's field hockey teams had to settle for silver at the World Indoor Championships in Porec (Croatia) on Sunday.

The women lost 1:0 to Poland in the final, but at least repeated their second place from the 2023 World Championships. The men then had to concede a 2:1 defeat to Germany in the final on the way to their third World Championship gold medal after a 6:6 tie in the penalty shoot-out.

While the women's final was rather minimalist, the fans in Porec were treated to a highly entertaining men's duel. Austria's man of the evening was once again Fabian Unterkircher, who shone with four goals. The captain equalized less than two minutes after Germany's 1:0 (6.). Germany's renewed lead through a seven-meter penalty (15th) only lasted a short time.

Instead, Austria turned the game around within 35 seconds. First, Unterkircher was on hand to score from the first short corner and a little later Fülöp Losonci made it 3:2 (18'). A passing error at the start of the second half meant they were 3:3 down (32'), but Losonci put them back in front after a short corner (33').

Game on a knife's edge
It remained an open game on a knife's edge. The Germans went 5:4 ahead again, Unterkirchner equalized from a short corner to make it 5:5. Thanks to another goal shortly before the end of the third quarter, Black-Red-Gold went into the final period with a 6:5 lead, but were unable to hold on to it. Unterkircher's fourth goal of the evening (35') meant the game went to a penalty shoot-out. There, goalie Mateusz Szymczyk gave Austria the better starting position and Unterkircher also scored. However, Sebastian Eitenberger and Losonci failed to score against the German goalkeeper - the DHB team celebrated their fourth World Championship gold.

Earlier, Austria's women were unable to repeat their strong semi-final performance against triple world champions Germany. An early goal by Amelia Katerla (3rd) decided the game in favor of the Eastern Europeans, whose first World Championship gold medal shone in gold. Red-White-Red fought hard to avoid defeat, but were unable to overcome the excellent defending of Poland.