Goalkeeper Lena Ivancok was awarded Player of the Match, presented by Grundfos, while her sister Ines Ivancok-Soltic was one of Austria’s two top scorers.
GROUP E
Austria vs Slovakia 37:24 (17:11)
- this was Austria’s first EHF EURO victory since 2006, while Slovakia remain on only one EHF EURO win in now 13 matches at final tournaments
- Ines Ivancok-Soltic scored the first three goals for her side and finished as top scorer, together with Johanna Reichert, on eight strikes
- her sister Lena, in her 50th match for Austria, was an important factor for the clear half-time lead with eight saves (42 per cent). She added six saves in the second until replaced by Petra Blazek in the 51st minute
- Austria pulled ahead with a 4:0 run between 10 and 18 minutes, and another 6:0 run from the end of the first half into the second gave them their first double-figured advantage at 21:11
- even when the win was secured, Austria did not relax, but fought for every ball in their solid-rock defence
- the clear win was a matter of a strong team performance: 11 Austrian players were in the scorer list, while Slovakia mainly profited from the nine goals of their top scorer Barbora Lancz
A historic night for Austrian women’s handball
Since 2008, Austria’s women had not qualified for any EHF EURO – and only one player in Thursday’s squad had the experience of playing European championships: goalkeeper and captain Petra Blazek, now in her fourth tournament. None of the court players had ever been on an EHF EURO court.
As Austria had lost all their three matches at the 2008 event, their last victory dated back to 10 December 2006, when they beat North Macedonia 28:25. The last double-digit win was back in 2002, a 32:19 victory against Ukraine in the main round. Three players of the current squad had not even been born then.
The 37:24 win against Slovakia was their first opening victory at a EHF EURO since 20, when Austria funny enough beat current World Champions France in Hungary 36:29 – with young Petra Blazek in the squad.
I think I should be very proud on what we did. I think at the beginning of the match we made a little bit difficult ourselves because we knew what they’re playing. We did tactics, but did some small mistakes, and then it was like one, two, three, four goals.
In the first half, we had some good moments, but the gap of six goals at the break was too big. And then we have big problems in the re-start after the break. Maybe the biggest lesson for us is that we have to fight for 60 minutes and not to have so many ups and downs.
