Spain vs Austria: Euro 2024 Victory & Qualification

After a great debut against Serbia, Spain also knew how to play a duel against Austria with unfinished business, since the draw two years ago (33-33) against this rival left Jordi Ribera’s group out of the second round of the European Championship. Furthermore, that fall represented a hard stop to an excellent streak for the Hispanics, who had six consecutive semifinals that preceded two golds and a total of four finals.

With a fast, fluid and versatile attack, a firm defensive scaffolding and the Navarrese wall of Russian origin Sergey Hernández, with up to eight stops, Spain flew in an excellent first period against dense opponents and with hardly any contribution from their goalkeepers. The score of 12-19 at half-time put the fundamental victory on track.

Always ahead, the national team knew how to take advantage of several key moments and the fact that the Central Europeans often attacked with seven, an apparent advantage in attack, but a defensive drama by leaving their goal empty. This is how Garciandia, the wonderful Gipuzkoan winger from Hungarian Szeged, took advantage of it to make it 4-7, the first important advantage.

Also key in those first stages is the excellent performance of Jan Gurri, the former Granollers winger who is triumphing at Portuguese Sporting at 23 years old and is another of their rising youngsters. He had perhaps his best 15 minutes with Spain. Another decisive moment was when Nacho Biosca, Nantes’ thirty-year-old goalkeeper, came out to save a penalty by leaving his leg behind and prelude the score to 10-14. Also decisive was Sergey’s surgical goal to make it 10-17, those seven goals difference that already weighed like a weight on the Austrians.

Victory assured

After a few minutes to regain strength and clarify or reinforce ideas, Austria took to the Herning court (Denmark) with renewed vigor and much rockier in defense. More similar to that team that put up a tough battle against Germany on Thursday before losing by three goals (30-27) to the current Olympic runners-up. Spain lowered its performance, especially in attack, since it was left with only 11 goals in this period, but it never saw its victory in danger.

The Hispanics missed up to five clear actions from six meters, but when Austria threatened to get within three goals, Sergey appeared again, imperial with another huge save and his second goal with the rival goal empty. That was the worst moment for a Spain that, for the moment, is advancing steadily. Sebastian Frimmel, the Austrian winger who scored 9 goals from 11 attempts against Germany, needed seven shots and 43 minutes to score against Spain. A revealing fact.