France defeats Croatia
“Incredible” Austrians ensure the next European Championship hammer
January 18, 2024, 8:02 p.m
Austria continues to cause a sensation at the European Handball Championship and is gathering plenty of tailwind for the duel against Germany. The coach can hardly understand the “unbelievable” achievements. Title contender France also wins at the start of the second phase of the tournament.
Austria’s handball players have added another chapter of success to their European Championship fairytale at the start of the main round. The Underdog, on Saturday (8.30 p.m./ARD and Dyn as well as in the live ticker at ntv.de) second German opponent in the fight for the semi-finals, defeated Hungary in a thriller 30:29 (17:17) and is in second place in Group I with 3:1 points. “That’s unbelievable,” said national coach Ales Pajovic about the surprising success in Cologne. “We have already exceeded all expectations and hope to be able to continue riding this wave,” said long-time Bundesliga professional Robert Weber.
The leader after the first day of the main round is Olympic champion France. The record world champion defeated Croatia in a hard-fought game with 34:32 (18:18) and now has 4:0 points. Croatia (1:3 points) stayed with it until deep into crunch time, with France’s pivot Nicolas Tournat scoring the decisive goal 32 seconds before the final siren. The best French throwers were Barca star Dika Mem (6 goals) and Nikola Karabatic (5). The former Kiel player moved to the top of the all-time European Championship top scorers list with his 289th goal, Karabatic replaced the Icelander Gudjon Valur Sigurdsson (288).
Nikola Bilyk from THW Kiel (8 goals) scored the most goals in the Austrian game. The underdog had completely surprisingly secured participation in the second phase of the tournament with a draw against former European champions Spain at the end of the preliminary round, the “Miracle of Mannheim” (“Tiroler Tageszeitung”). Now the next coup against the previously undefeated Hungarians. “We are igniting a huge euphoria in Austria. We as a team are having a lot of fun just playing handball together. We are enjoying every moment we are currently experiencing here,” said Bilyk after the last-minute win in Cologne. Looking ahead to the Germany game, he said: “We can hardly wait. It’s going to be really cool.”
Bence Banhidi, Gabor Ancsin, Miklos Rosta and Mate Lekai (4 goals each) scored most frequently for Hungary (2:2 points). Austria was initially behind, but didn’t allow themselves to be disconcerted by a four-goal deficit at 4:8 (11th). After the break, the Alpine handball players, with goalkeeper Constantin Möstl getting stronger and stronger, took the lead for the first time: Tobias Wagner scored to make it 23:22 (42nd) and heralded an exciting final phase.