Austria stun Belarus as five more World Championship places decided

FYR Macedonia, Hungary, Sweden, Austria and Iceland became the latest teams to qualify for the IHF Men’s World Championship 2019 as play-offs continued on Wednesday. They join Russia and Norway, who qualified on Tuesday.

Romania´s 26:25 win against FYR Macedonia was not enough to catch up with the Macedonian eight-goal lead from the first leg, and Slovenia´s 26:22 win in Hungary was not quite enough to make up for their five-goal defeat in the first match.

Sweden left no doubt, defeating the Netherlands 26:20, while Austria made a stunning comeback to beat Belarus 31:26. Iceland won a close match against Lithuania through a 34:31 win.

Romania vs FYR Macdonia 26:25 (12:11)
First leg 24:32. Agg. 50:57

FYR Macedonia are ready for the final round in January, while Romania will miss yet another major championship despite their win in front of 2,500 spectators in Cluj Napoca on Wednesday evening.

After FYR Macedonia shot into an early 4:1 lead, Romania’s hopes of qualification returned with a five-goal run that turned a 5:7 deficit into a 10:7 lead.

FYR Macedonia caught up again at 11:11, and even though Romania were leading again at half time, they were still a long way from those eight goals.

During the second half, Romania had several further three-goal leads and even a four-goal lead at 24:20 with eight minutes left.

This was as close as they got to eliminating the eight-goal deficit, and the Macedonian team were able to celebrate a final round berth which was never really in danger.

Cosmin Grigoras from Romania and Dejan Manaskov from FYR Macedonia scored eight goals each.

The match was also a farewell for Romania´s national coach Xavi Pascual. The experienced Spaniard, who is also in charge of FC Barcelona, is stepping down.

Hungary vs Slovenia 22:26 (12:12)
First leg 29:24. Agg. 51:50

Despite defeat in the Arena Veszprém, Hungary, who reached the quarter-final at the World Championship 2017, are ready for the final round in Denmark and Germany. Slovenia will not get the chance to copy their bronze medal triumph from 2017.

The strong Slovenian finish simply came too late for them to catch up with the five-goal lead which Hungary earned in the last minutes of the first match in Slovenia last week.

Hungary were in control during the first half, doing their best to make sure their opponents did not get the feeling they could turn the tables from the first leg. The Hungarians were leading throughout the first 30 minutes, and were three goals up at several points.

Considering the five goal-lead they brought with them from the first match in Koper, the draw at half time was still reassuring for Hungary, while the Slovenians obviously had something to think about.

Slovenia opened the second half by taking their first lead at 13:12. They extended the lead to four goals by the end of the match, but this was not enough to take the World Championship ticket out of the hands of the Hungarians.

Mate Lekai scored seven goals for Hungary, Borut Machovsek six for Slovenia.

Sweden vs Netherlands 26:20 (14:7)
First leg 24:25. Agg. 50:45

Sweden left no doubt in front of 4,360 spectators in the Kristianstad Arena. Their hunger for revenge after the sensational away defeat to the Netherlands seemed as big as their hunger for the World Championship ticket.

Sweden were completely dominating from the start and took an early 7:1 lead. A stellar Mikael Appelgren in the Swedish goal made the Dutch shooters more and more frustrated, and the visitors only managed to score two goals within the first 15 minutes.

Sweden went on to lead by nine goals at 14:5, before the Netherlands scored the last two goals of the first half.

The Swedes took things a bit more easily for great parts of the second half, letting the visitors getting within five goals distance, but still without allowing any doubt about the final outcome.

Towards the end, the Swedes demonstrated their power again for a while, increasing their lead to eight goals at 26:18.

Wingers Jerry Tollbring and Mattias Zachrisson scored seven goals each for Sweden, and right back Kay Smits eight for the Netherlands.

Austria vs Belarus 31:26 (13:16)
First leg 28:28. Agg. 59:54

The 5,000 spectators in the Erste Bank Arena in Vienna saw two halves as different as night and day, as Austria came back from several four-goal deficits before the break to book the World Championship ticket with a clear win.

The first half belonged to the visitors. Belarus took an early 3:0 lead, and for the following 20 minutes, they were never leading by less than three goals.

With five minutes left, Austria´s coach Patrekur Johannesson introduced a seven against six attack, and this briefly enabled the home team to reduce the deficit to two goals. At the half time buzzer, however, Belarus were back at their three-goal lead again.

If the first half belonged to the visitors, the last 30 minutes certainly belonged to the Austrians. Belarus did lead 18:15 and 19:17, but then an eight-minute goal drought was costly.

Early in the second half, Alex Hermann equalised for the home team for the first time in the match, making it 19:19, and two minutes later, Sebastian Frimmel gave Austria their first lead at 20:19.

Gerald Zeiner increased this lead to two goals another two minutes later on a penalty shot, before it took Alex Hermann another minute to make it 22:19.

With eight and a half minutes left, Zeiner gave Austria the first four-goal lead at 25:21, and as the hosts got five goals up at 28:23 with five minutes left, the result was conclusive.

Iceland vs Lithuania 34:31 (18:16)
First leg 27:27. Agg. 61:58

Iceland are in the bowl at the draw at the City Hall of Copenhagen on 25 June, but Gudmundur Gudmundsson´s team had to work hard and wait until the last minutes before they were able to decide the match against Lithuania in their own favour.

Lithuania were leading by a goal or two for great parts of the first half, but in the last third of the half, Iceland took over the initiative.

From the 21st to the 26th minute the hosts extended their lead from 13:13 to 17:13, but by the half time buzzer, the Lithuanians had managed to cut the Icelandic four-goal lead in half.

Early in the second half, Lithuania caught up again at 19:19, and even though Iceland got four goals up again at 24:20 10 minutes into the half, the visitors kept hanging on. For a long time, the hosts were only one or two goals ahead.

Not until the last minutes, when Iceland got four goals ahead again, was the match finally decided.