Austria misses the World Cup finals after losing to Iceland «kleinezeitung.at
The ÖHB men had to admit defeat in the second leg of the World Cup play-offs, as they had in the first leg against Iceland. With the 26:34, the team missed the World Cup in Poland and Sweden.
9:27 p.m., April 16, 2022
Austria’s men’s national handball team has one for the first time since 2017 WM or EM finals lost. The ÖHB team had to compete on Saturday in the second leg of the World Cup Playoffs in Hafnarfjordur Island as expected with 26:34 (15:19) beaten. Austria already had the first leg against the big favorites Bregenz lost 30:34 and is in at the finals in January 2023 Poland and Sweden only spectators.
The team of Ales Pajovič showed a good offensive performance against the world-class team in the first half. As on Wednesday, the Austrians played at eye level in the early stages and were mostly just in the lead. After 20 minutes (12:12), the Icelandic class prevailed. The Northern Europeans gradually pulled away and went into the half-time break with a four-goal lead.
The hosts used the suboptimal work of the Austrians in the backward movement and scored again and again with fast advances. Outstanding while captain Aaron Palmarson, who used all seven throws in the first half. After the break, the Icelanders quickly increased their lead and finally got the World Cup ticket with ease.
“In the first 20 minutes we kept up, after that we ran out of strength, we lacked the breadth in the team. But that’s exactly what we’re working on,” summed up team boss Pajovic, who emphasized the positives. “We fought for more than 60 minutes in both games and showed that we play good handball. There were again many young players who have now won their chance. The team showed character. Even when we were eight goals down, the lads didn’t give up and fought to the end. we can build on that,” said the Slovenian.
Behind Tobias Wagner (6) War Robert Weber with four gates (shared with Boris Zivkovic) second best scorer of the Austrians. The veteran completed his 204th international match and is now behind solo Ewald Humenberg (246) and Patrick Folser (218) in third place in the all-time ÖHB international match statistics.
The next challenge for the significantly younger ÖHB team is in October. From mid-October it goes into the qualification for die EURO 2024 against dying Ukraine, Romania and die Faroe Islands for one of the two promotion places. The four best of the eight third-placed groups also qualify for the finals in Germany.