The fact that both teams are staying in the same hotel is also explosive. There shouldn’t have been any tensions yet, but Austria’s goalkeeper Constantin Möstl also reacted with little amusement to his position colleague’s attack in an interview with Sport1: “I hope he knows himself that the choice of words wasn’t the right one. If the last player needed motivation, he should watch the video again, then the last percentage points are there to give 100 percent,” he countered.
Wolff’s teammates relied on de-escalation on Wednesday so as not to fuel their opponents’ motivation even further. “I think Andi actually wanted to express that he has great respect for Austrian handball and that he definitely doesn’t take the game lightly. He wanted to send a warning signal to our team,” Knorr tried to interpret the statements respectfully. Miro Schluroff also explained: “I wouldn’t completely contradict him, but I would have said it differently.”
Both know that their opening opponent represents a challenge. “We have had a very difficult time in the last few games. I believe that Austria has a great team spirit as well as high individual quality in many positions,” analyzed Knorr and concluded: “It won’t be an easy game.”
For him, the most important thing will be to keep calm. “We have to be patient and not get annoyed when things don’t work,” said Knorr. “They’re just going to play down their boots and we have to know that we have to fight back and not think we’ve won the game after 20 minutes,” was his warning.
The German team cannot actually afford to lose points at the start of the tournament. With a view to the expected main round group with world champions and Olympic champions Denmark and defending European champions France, the German team has to take as many points as possible. Stumbling against Austria is also forbidden because a victory at the end of the preliminary round against Spain is anything but a foregone conclusion.
The Austrians, on the other hand, have hardly anything to lose – and now they also have a little extra motivation to shake up the German tournament goal of the semi-finals early on.