Handball: ÖHB men also lose EM dress rehearsal

Austria’s handball men set off to Croatia for the European Championship without feeling of success. Two days after the 23-26 home defeat, a weakened troop from the Czech Republic had to admit defeat in revenge. In Brno, the ÖHB selection was clearly down 21:35 (10:13) on Sunday and must hope for a clear increase before the European Championship kick-off on Friday against Belarus.

Team boss Patrekur Johannesson, in contrast to Friday’s match with backroom ace Nikola Bilyk and wing Sebastian Frimmel, did without two regulars, who were spared due to slight injuries. In addition, Lukas Herburger was missing after surviving nausea.

Austria only stayed close to their opponents until the score of 6:7, but scored too many misses overall and then had to let the Czechs go on and on despite a strong performance from goalkeeper Kristian Pilipovic. Especially after the break, Austria had very little to contend with the hosts, who are also represented at the European Championship.

“The 10:13 halftime was ok, we were still in the game. After changing sides, the Czech Republic was much better than us,”Johannesson had to admit. The Icelander was able to increase his share of the second row at least,”but the positive thing is that the losses of Bilyk, Frimmel and Herburger gave some players more time to play. The game on 12. and by then I’ll have to find solutions.”

The ÖHB delegation will be adopted by Vice Chancellor and Sports Minister Heinz-Christian Strache at the House of Sports on Tuesday and will leave for the Porec preliminaries on Wednesday. On Friday (18.00 hrs) the European Championship kick-off against Belarus is scheduled. The game against the supposedly lightest opponent in the group – world champion France and vice world champion Norway are expected to be higher – is likely to be the deciding factor for advancing to the main round.