Thursday, 28. January 2010
Vienna: Austria beats Russia 31:30
credit: Silvio Ferrari
The game started very uncomfortable for Austria. Russia led two-nil after the first few minutes, and after some minutes the Russians were leading by three goals 5:2. But the score changed when Bernd Friede equalized 8:8, scored again (then Russia scoring) and Conny Wilczynski scored twice too. (9:12)
Russia caught up to 12:13, 13:14 and 14:16 but the timeout of Austria’s coach Dagur Sigurdsson, thirty seconds before the end of the first half, helped Austria to score once more. (Günther, 30th) So the first half ended up 15:17.
Austria started the second half with one player less but scored nevertheless (Günther). After three minutes in the second half there were two Austrian players less and it’s because of the goalkeeper Thomas Bauer, who saved a spectacular ball, that Russia couldn’t score at this point. At a score of 18:20 number 13, Günther scored again which brought a plus three lead of Austria.
Both sides were playing with two players less, when Russia’s player number 7 (Kovalev) was given another two minutes suspension, Austria scored (19:22) and another Russian player (number 17, Kamanin) was sent out for two minutes. For that reason it was 2:4 field players. After everybody was back in the game, Austria was leading by 20:23. Russia equalized in minute 45 (23:23) but Austria answered with a quick goal by Weber, a wonderful save of Austria’s goalkeeper and another two goals by Schlinger, so they were leading by plus three when Russia managed to score again (number 7) 24:26.
Eight minutes before the end of the game Austria was leading by plus four, due to a goal by Schlinger but Russia managed to catch up to minus one, but there wasn’t enough time anymore to equalize, so the match ended 30:31.
Maximov (coach of Russia): “There were so many interesting games and in the last thirty years there was no such situation where there were only two players at the field. We had some technical mistakes, but we shot a goal with only three players.”
Chipurin (player number 20, Russia): “The tournament was nice and very well organized, but there haven’t been six players on the field most of the time.”
Sigurdsson (coach of Austria): “I want to thank Russia for a good game. This must be something unbelievable, because we won against a team, which is one of the best handball nations in the world.”
Günther (player number 13, Austria): “At the moment I feel pretty happy. Today we tried to do what Dagur told us, we have been a little bit tired but now we are only happy!”
