Austria lost 31:36 (14:17) to Poland at the start of the European Handball Championship yesterday in Bratislava. The squad of ÖHB team boss Ales Pajovic was not able to capitalize on the corona cluster that occurred with the opponent: After positive corona tests on Wednesday evening, the Poles had nominated five players – but none of them play first fiddle in the national team.
In order to get one of the two targeted promotion places in the preliminary round group D, an ÖHB success in the first game was almost a must. Before that, the German selection, which Austria meets tomorrow (6 p.m., ORF1), beat Belarus 33:29.
Against the big neighbors, Austria needs a significant improvement, especially defensively. “We didn’t manage to stop the Poles,” said Pajovic. The red-white-red defense group around Lukas Herburger and Fabian Posch, who opened the game with his 200th international goal, found no recipe against the opposing top scorer Arkadiusz Moryto (ten goals) and the powerful throwing Szymon Sicko (six). Sicko then took himself out of the game when he ran into Nikola Bilyk’s backswing. Because of the risk of injury, he saw red straight away (47.)
Bilyk – Austria’s key player – was initially knocked out of the game by a Polish man mark. Pajovic had no choice but to put the ineffective Kiel star, who only scored his first of three goals in the 34th minute, on the bench for a long time. In front of the eyes of the captain, Lukas Hutecek, among others, tried to set accents in the ÖHB backcourt. An ankle injury stopped the Lemgo Legionnaire in the second half. “It doesn’t look good,” Pajovic replied when asked about the degree of injury.
Herman’s comeback
Alexander Hermann presented himself as an alternative in the backcourt. For the native of Trauner, the Poland game was his first international match in two years after several serious injuries. The three goals were his first in ÖHB dress in four years (EM 2018 against Norway). The 30-year-old couldn’t be happy about the defeat: “We just weren’t good enough defensively.”
Source: Nachrichten
