The handball players of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) defeated the selection of Austria in Bugojno in the remaining game of the 2nd round of qualifications for the European Championship with the result 27:21. In this way, our team managed to return to the game for the Euro qualifications, and this was the successful debut of the new coach Ivica Obrvan.
BiH handball players were better in the opening of the match. They took the lead with 1:0, the guests equalized, and then a series of four goals of our selection followed, so the scoreboard showed 5: 1.
At that moment, the Austrians wake up then and with three tied goals they come to the equalizer. Then, it was played goal after goal until the result of 7: 6 was reached. After that, Austria tied three goals again, reversed the result, and even got a two-goal advantage.
However, Ivica Obrvan’s players were able to return to the match so they left on the break with good reactions in the very end with an advantage of 11:10.
Peric was the best from the BiH team in the first half, since he scored three goals, while Haseljic, Vranjes, and Malinovic scored two goals each. On the other hand, Bozovic, Frimmel, and Hutecek scored three goals each for Austria in the first half.
Once again, our team opened the match in a better way, so the advantage gradually increased to a maximum of four goals (18:14).
Our players continued to play well, so nine minutes before the end of the match, they had the biggest advantage of five goals difference (23:18).
They did not lose the advantage until the end of the game, so BiH achieved an extremely important victory with a convincing six-goal difference, which will mean a lot in the qualification finals.
The best in the BiH national team was Peric with five goals, while Haseljic, Prce, and Vranjes scored four each. Goalkeeper Buric had as many as 11 saves. When it comes to the other side, the best was Weber with six goals, and Frimmel scored five.
BiH is in second place in Group 2 of the Euro qualifiers with two wins and two losses, or four points. The first is certainly Germany with eight points, while Austria in third and Estonia in fourth place have a win, meaning two points. Two first-place teams go directly to the championship, and our team plays two more games until the end of the qualification – against Germany and Austria, Klix
E.Dz.