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A great challenge awaits the troops on Friday.
With their 36:22 (17:14) win over Morocco, the Austrian handball men celebrated their first World Cup victory in Egypt. At the start of the President’s Cup by places 25-32, the clearly favored ÖHB team on Wednesday in Cairo had some problems, but in the end they won as they deserved. The cornerstone for a conciliatory finish to the final round, which was ruined for the Austrians, was laid with the highest Atletico-Red World Cup victory of all time.
In the next game on Friday (6pm / ORF Sport + live), team boss Ales Pajovic and Chile will face a much more difficult task. The South Americans, with whom Austria still has an account since the 2019 World Cup (24:32), finished off South Korea with 44:33 in the parallel match. The group ends on Sunday (6 pm / both ORF Sport +) with the match against the Asians, before the final match against a team from Group I takes place on Wednesday.
In Cairo, Austria had to do without captain Gerald Zeiner (groin), but also behind Dominik Schmid (ankle) against the North Africans and thus lost more routine. Despite this and the disappointment over the lost main round, they were focused and motivated for long stretches. But it took a while before the red-white-red found its way into the game against the agile and offensive Moroccans covering. The 5: 4 after twelve minutes was the first advantage, at the latest after a quarter of an hour (8: 6) the train for outsiders, who mostly participate in various French leagues, in principle left.
Morocco accomplished little in the attack at this stage, mostly without creating danger at all, especially not from the rear. After a 15:10 lead, Austria missed the last consequence and clearly missed expanding their lead until the break. The start of the second half was not very convincing either, Morocco reared up again and were within two goals (18: 16/33.), But finally fought against the dwindling force. Austria proved ruthless, scoring many simple goals (including by the two goalkeepers Florian Kaiper and Thomas Eichberger) and bringing the game to a merciless end.
“After three defeats, the victory was very, very important, also for the mood,” Pajovic said after the match. “Our defensive performance was very important today because we scored a lot of easy goals in the second wave and on the fast break. I hope that in two days we will return to the game with the same performance.”
Sebastian Frimmel also found the performance “generally very good”. The match “was not always easy” due to the aggressive and offensive coverage of the Moroccans, and the victory “is good for you”. The next game against Chile “will not be easy, you have to give everything,” Frimmel stressed, with nine goals the best pitcher that night.
(WHAT)
