For Slovenia, a draw would have been enough to proceed, and even the great support of 3,341 fans in the arena was not enough for Austria. Austrian top scorer Johanna Reichert (nine goals) was awarded Player of the Match, presented by Grundfos.
GROUP E
Slovenia vs Austria 25:24 (13:13)
- after Austria started with a 6:3 run, Slovenia turned the match around for the lead at 8:7, almost 20 minutes in – and from that moment on, the lead changed constantly and the biggest gap until the break was one goal
- the match was an intense defence battle, in which Slovenian goalkeeper Maja Vojnovic shone with six saves before the break
- Austria’s Johanna Reichert, in her 50th international match, scored four of her nine goals in the first half
- after the break goalkeeper Antonija Mamic became a factor for the Austrians, turning a 17:20 deficit into a 21:20 lead
- as for Slovenia a draw was enough, the 25:23 lead seemed to be enough, although Austria continued to fight and would have had time to win were it not for Sonja Frey hitting the posts and Ana Pandža missing another shot, both in the last minute
Stanko makes the difference
In the first match – their EHF EURO record win against Slovakia (37:24) – Austrian goalkeeper Ines Ivancok was awarded Player of the Match, but against Slovenia, she was replaced after only two saves from 10 shots. While Antonija Mamic’s arrival between the posts made a difference, this was not enough to win, as on the other side, the experienced Tjaša Stanko was the key for the success.
After eight goals against Austria, the left back is on 24 tournament goals. She also levelled with Ana Gros as the Slovenian player with the most Women’s EHF EURO matches – 18. Stanko will now exceed Gros when their journey continues in the main round.
I won the EURO, silver at the Olympics, but this was such a big win for these girls, officials and Slovenia, so I am extremely proud and happy and I am happy that we are building something at the start of the new Olympic cycle, being among the 12 teams, without 12 players among 12 teams. I am really proud and happy.
It was a very tough game, a very close game. We did a little bit of mistakes in the end, and we didn’t score, especially not easy goals, and we missed two seven-metre shots, and I think that was the point.
