“More luck than sense”
Austria’s district colossus complains about German fans
January 26, 2024, 12:51 a.m
Austria brings the German national handball team to the brink of defeat and rips the European Championship hosts’ sporting fate out of their hands. An Austrian complains because the German spectators want to do their part to help the DHB team progress.
The Austrian national handball team writes one of the sensational stories at the European Championships in Germany: In the preliminary round, the team achieved the “Miracle of Mannheim” with the dramatic 33:33 against Spain, thus plunging the big favorites into a deep crisis. In the main round there was a win against stronger Hungarians and the 22:22 against the hosts, which the outsiders celebrated like a victory. After two defeats against France and Iceland, the proud winter sports nation, which triggered a handball “explosion” at home, finished the European Championship in eighth place. A sensational success. But at the end of the great journey there are also discords.
“It’s a shame that the German audience doesn’t appreciate our performance and boos us,” complained Austria’s powerful cyclist Tobias Wagner in an interview with ORF. And immediately followed up with a supposed reason for the headwind from the fans of the German national team: “Probably because they know that they had more luck than sense against us.”
Austria had seriously annoyed the DHB team in Cologne, supported by an outstanding goalkeeping performance from Constantin Möstl, the outsider drove the German throwers to an incredible 22 missed throws. After 48 minutes, Austria led by five goals before the hosts, driven by the frenetic crowd in the sold-out Lanxess Arena, saved themselves a draw. The 128-pound colossus Wagner scored three goals in three attempts.
As a result of the result, the hosts had given up their own sporting fate and were dependent on Austria losing points. The German fans were correspondingly loud in their support of the underdog’s opponents in the following games. Austria lost after a great fight against record world champions France and Iceland. Thanks to Austria’s defeat against Iceland and France’s subsequent victory over Hungary, the team had already qualified for the semi-finals before their own main round final against Croatia.
“Very much respect”
On a Facebook post about Wagner’s fanfare, hall spokesman Kevin Gerwin commented: “It’s a shame that he sees it so extremely negatively. You should see it as a compliment because the German fans took you seriously as competitors for the semi-finals,” wrote Gerwin. “We certainly had great respect for the Austrians’ performance. Unfortunately, after the direct encounter, they “got in the way” of the German goals twice. […] In fact, after every Austrian game (including the draw against Germany) there was fair applause for Austria and their respective players of the day. I also thought it was a shame that there were constant whistles when time was called for.”
In addition to being proud of the strong team result, Tobias Wagner was also able to enjoy personal appreciation: the 28-year-old was nominated by the European association for the shortlist for the tournament’s All-Star team.