Mykola Bilyk I already had a slight premonition. “We have to learn to deal with this situation. Because it will happen again and again in the future that we will go into a game as favorites,” said the captain Austrian national team before the World Cup playoff first leg against Georgia explained.
In fact, the Austrians had their hands full to achieve the mandatory victory in Tbilisi. After the arduous 27:25, the team should Aleš Pajovič for the second leg on Sunday in the Wiener Steffl Arena (4 p.m., live ORF Sport +) be warned. Nevertheless, nothing should normally stand in the way of participation in the 2025 World Cup finals in Croatia, Denmark and Norway.
Lots of negligence
The Austrians only showed their class at times in Georgia and were error-prone, erratic and inconsistent in front of the goal. A stronger opponent would probably have punished this negligence more severely; at halftime the score was 12:12, after the Austrian team had already trailed by three goals.
Team boss should be there during the break Aleš Pajovič loud, because after the restart the Austrians turned up the heat and with six goals in a row they moved ahead to 18:12 within a few minutes. However, even with the comfortable lead, security and sovereignty did not come into play.
The courageously fighting Georgians took advantage of the Austrian mistakes and fought their way back. A few minutes before the end, the Austrian team was suddenly only 25:24 ahead and had to fear for a mandatory victory.
In the end, Austria retained the upper hand and lived up to their role as favorites. Bozovic secured the 27:25 victory in the last minute, which opens the door to the 2025 World Cup.
“Not covered in glory”
“It was a lot of hard work, not how we honestly imagined it would be. At least we’re going to Vienna with a two-goal lead,” said the captain Bilyk after the game in which too many chances were missed. We didn’t cover ourselves with glory in attack today. But you have to win games like that first.”