Rumania beat Austria 27-21

By Karina Wulff Harrestrup
It was easy to see that the Austrian players had given up in the end of the game. Even Ausra Fridrikas who was the best player for Austria didn’t even have faith left in the team it seemed. In the last minutes she lost the ball and didn’t put in any effort to pick it up.

The first half had been a very equal match, though. The score at half time was 12-11 with Rumania leading the game. Both defences made it into a rough match and especially Ausra Fridrikas received quite a few hard tackles both on her body and in her face. Austria did have many well qualified shots from the distance and it was Fridikas who was the best player on the team with seven goals in the first half.

Rumania played with creativity in the attack and had a good defence as well. However, they did receive bookings and two minutes penalties for their rough play from time to time. It was especially the two Rumanian wings who made a difference. Nicoleta Alina Dobrin and Cristina Georgina Varzuru played with the Austrian defence.

In the first 15 minutes of the second half the Austian team was able to keep up with the Rumanians. But then the Rumanian team seemed to pull away because of some bad passes from the Austrian players.

The game was over for Austria when there was bout ten minutes left. Rumania was leading 23-19 and even though Austria kept on fighting a few more minutes they never succeeded in equalizing the score. Rumania had a well deserved victory in the first game in the tournament.

Ole Eliasen: We weren’t strong enough

“It was an equal game until the middle of the second half. We weren’t strong enough in our attack and unfortunately we don’t make enough goals. However, I do think that the defence was good”, said the Austrian coach after the defeat.

He wasn’t satisfied with the result of the game:

“I’m quite sorry that the we lost with six goals. It was too much I think. It would have been more fair if we had only lost with two or three goals. We just don’t make enough goals ourselves and the movements of the players in the attack were too slow”, said the disappointed coach.

The Austrian coach was also very pleased with the referees. He thought they’d been very fair during the game.