The most pleasant surprise of the 16th European Handball Championship was Austria - Aleš Pajović's team recorded even a third draw against another giant of world handball, Germany (22:22).
After in the group stage they "tore off" a point each from Croatia and Spain, which they sent home after six consecutive semi-finals, i.e. four tied finals, Mikola Bilik and his friends stopped the host as well.
However, they have reason to be sad, because they did not score a goal in the last 10 minutes, which the Germans used to melt the minus five and stay in the game for the semi-finals.
The home team was led by Juri Knorr with six goals, while the Austrians were led by Bilik with five and great goalkeeper Konstantin Mestl with 17 saves, three more than the famous Andreas Wolf on the other side.
Another exciting finish, another victory for Hungary - Ćema Rodrigues' team defeated Croatia 29:26 and got closer to the semi-finals.
Croats beat themselves, because they made a lot of mistakes since the score was 25:25 - Tin Lučin lost the ball and opened a counterattack to the rival, then missed the shot, and everything was solved when Zvonimir Srna gave the new ball to the rival, so Adrian Šipoš increased the score to 28:25 with a minute and a half to go.
Goalkeeper Laslo Bartuc was chosen as the player of the match, who made 16 saves, Bence Imre scored seven, and Rihard Bodo scored five goals.
Goran Perkovac's team was led by Lučin and Filip Glavaš with five goals each.
In the first match of the day, France routinely outplayed Iceland (39:32) and with a maximum of six points is practically in the semi-finals.
It is interesting that all 14 players in the team of Guillaume Gilles entered the list of scorers - the most Melvin Richardson and Ludovic Fabregas six each, and Odin Tor Rikhardson, Viggo Kristjanson and Eliji Vidarson had the same effect.
Rikardsson scored a goal that will probably be the most beautiful of the championship - from a zeppelin from behind.
Hungary has four points with two rounds to go, as does Austria, and Germany has three. Those three teams will decide who goes to the semi-finals.
Croatia with one and Iceland without one are practically written off.
Bonus video:
