Austria clinch draw with Croatia to leave group B open

The Croatian game flow was not as fluid as against Spain as Austria put up a strong fight and took the best out of Croatian mistakes, keeping the fans on the edge right to the siren.

GROUP B

Croatia vs Romania (14:12)

• just like against Spain, Croatia opened the match with a 5:1 lead but it took the Croats three minutes less to achieve it, backed with amazing Matej Mandic saves
• a hasty Croatian attack and turnovers saw Austria fuelling a three-goal run as teams were in a locked (9:9) 20 minutes into the first half, but Mario Sostaric secured Croatia's two-goal lead at half-time
• Austria made a run for it quite literally - they ran one kilometre more than Croatia in the first half with Lukas Hutacek being the team's sprinter with 2.5 kilometres
• strong defence and a top performance by Player of the Match, presented by Grundfos, Nikola Bilyk, alongside the veteran wing Robert Weber kept Austria in the mix until the end
• Bilyk and Sebastien Frimmel both played their 100th match for Austria, while on the other side, Filip Glavas scored his 100th goal for Croatia

Austria out to shock

Croatian head coach Goran Perkovac was changing tactics and players, switching from a 6-0 to a 5-1 defence all to make a more significant lead after 14:12 at half-time. However, Austria continued to pounce as they felt like they could and resisted all the pressure coming from Croatian fans in the stands.

The Austrian head coach said it would be tough to compete against Croatia's strong back court players, but their defence proved to be the right antidote. After trailing by four at the start and an early timeout, they stepped up a gear and levelled.

Croatia did not use their wide squad to tire out the opponents. Seeing team captain Domagoj Duvnjak on the edge of his chair, living through every move, it was clear much a win would have meant to the Croats, who now await a crucial game in the last round on Tuesday.

Photos © Kolektiff Images