Wayward for Team Austria
The match schedule at the European Handball Championship in Hungary and Slovakia is a bit strangely distributed. Already on Thursday the first nine matches are on the programme. On Friday, however, only three matches will be played. Among others, the Austrian team will start into the tournament and will have to deal with the representatives from Poland.
It was not so long ago that this encounter would have been a clear story for the Poles. But the Polish team has some great retired players. The new formation has not yet found its way back to its old strength. So the Poles only made it to the final tournament as one of the best third-placed teams in the qualifying group.
The Austrians, on the other hand, secured their ticket as group runners-up and because the draw meant well for Team Austria, Ales Paujovic’s team can now hope to make it to the main round. A win on Friday would be half the battle
In our opinion, the Austrian team has the quality to win the opening match in Bratislava. If everything goes according to plan, they only need a win against Belarus to join the German team in the main round. Before the match between Austria and Poland, we think it’s safe to bet on Team Austria advancing to the next round.
Austria – Statistics & current form
Two years ago, the Austrians made it to the main round at the European Championship and ended up a very good eighth. That is a success to take as a model. In the group stage, Belarus and Poland should be on a par. If Ales Paujovic’s team does its stuff, then the next round is definitely possible.
Without a test match to the European Championship
The problem of the Austrians is that they could only prepare for the European Championship with training. Two test matches against Slovakia had to be cancelled because of an infection outbreak at the co-host of the EURO. Therefore, the Austrians don’t really know where they stand at the moment, because the last international match took place at the beginning of November.
After all, Team Austria has won three of the last four international matches, even if the opponents were only Estonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Czech Republic – with the Czechs taking revenge just a few days later. Nevertheless, the results are encouraging, so we check the odds on an ÖHB win in the Austria vs Poland match.
Overall, things could not look better for the Austrians in terms of personnel. While other nations have to deal with isolated players and injuries are still an issue these days, Ales Paujovic has his dream squad together. At the moment, Austria is one of the few teams at the World Cup that does not have any absentees.
The squad of Austria:
Goal: Doknic, Häusle, Kaiper
Back: Martinovic, Zeiner, Bilyk, Hermann, Dicker, Hutecek, Bozovic, Zivkovic
Left wing: Frimmel, Damböck
Right wing: Weber, Ranftl
Circle: Posch, Herburger, Wagner
Coach: Paujovic
Last matches of Austria:
Friendlies
11/07 2021 – Czech Republic 30 – 21 Austria
11/05 2021 – Austria 35 – 30 Czech Republic
European Championships Qualification Grp. 2
05/02 2021 – Austria 27 – 23 Bosnia and Herzegovina
04/29 2021 – Estonia 27 – 31 Austria
03/14 2021 – Bosnia and Herzegovina 27 – 21 Austria
Poland – Statistics & current form
It was five or six years ago when Poland were still one of the best teams in the world. However, the golden generation has since departed and this high level has not been matched by the new talent. After the Polish team only got into the tournament at the World Cup in Egypt via a wild card, they must now be happy to have secured their ticket to the European Championship at the last minute.
Poland in a test match frenzy
However, the Poles now seem to want to make it count at the finals. Coach Patryk Rombel asked his players to play a total of five test matches after Christmas. They won against Japan, the Netherlands and Iran. The Poles, on the other hand, lost to Tunisia and European champions Spain. But there is certainly nothing to fear from this team.
Therefore, contrary to the opinions of the betting providers, we rather predict an Austrian victory in the duel between Austria and Poland. This is also due to the fact that the Polish team is somewhat shaken in the run-up to the European Championship and has to do without numerous players.
At short notice, playmaker Rafal Przybylski and circle runner Dawid Dawydzik had to go into quarantine and are not even on call. In addition, Maciej Majdzinski, Tomasz Gebala, Adrian Kondratiuk, Krystian Bondzior and Arkadiusz Ossowski are absent due to injury. That certainly doesn’t make Thursday’s task any easier.
The Poland squad:
Goal: Kornecki, Zembrzycki, Morawski
Back: Jedraszczyk, Olejniczak, Pilitowski, Przytula, Sicko, Pietrasik, Adamski, Beckman, Chrapkowski
Left wing: Czuwara, Krajewski
Right wing: Daszek, Moryto
Circle: Walczak, Syprzak, Gebala
Coach: Rombel
Last matches of Poland:
Friendlies
01/08 2022 – Poland 25 – 26 Spain
01/07 2022 – Poland 35 – 29 Iran
11/06 2021 – Sweden 32 – 28 Poland
11/04 2021 – Sweden 31 – 24 Poland
European Championships Qualification Grp. 5
05/02 2021 – Netherlands 32 – 30 Poland
Austria – Poland Direct comparison / H2H-Balance
The geographical proximity of Poland and Austria is definitely there. Nevertheless, there have not been many occasions where the two handball teams have crossed paths. To be precise, there has only been one match between these two teams. One could certainly have expected more matches.
In November 2011, more than ten years ago, there was a test match between these two nations. At that time, the Poles had an outstanding squad, but Austria kept the match open for a long time and only lost 27:29 in the end. For the duel on Friday in Bratislava, however, that match many years ago no longer has any meaning.
Austria – Poland tip
The Austrians are looking to attack and coach Ales Paujovic makes it clear that his team has done an outstanding job in preparation, even though they were unable to play a test match. But maybe that is exactly the advantage, because Team Austria has no injured players and did not have to send a single player into isolation.
With the Poles, things are clearly different. In addition to numerous injured players, two players are also in quarantine. Perhaps these circumstances are also due to the five test matches that Patryk Rombel’s team has played.
It will certainly be a close match, though. Overall, we see both teams at about the same level. Therefore, we cannot work with high handicaps, but the low handicaps give us a bit more leeway. This allows us to limit the risk considerably. We have decided to play the betting odds on a handicap win (+1.5) for Team Austria between Austria and Poland
