Olympic qualification: Austria lose opener 0:2 to Germany

A repeat of 2021 has not materialised. Just over three years ago, Austria left the ice in Füssen (GER) with a 3:0 victory over Germany; on Thursday evening in Bremerhaven, however, they had to concede a 0:2 defeat to the hosts. Austria are now under pressure against Hungary and Slovakia, both live on Magenta Sport, and will also need help from elsewhere to secure a ticket to Milan and Cortina d´Ampezzo (ITA).

06 February 20253 min read

After Germany had slightly more of the play at the start of the first period, Red-White-Red failed to capitalise on an approximately 90-second five-on-three power play in the 13th minute. At both ends, the goaltenders impressed with their saves and kept their respective nets clean until the intermission buzzer.

As in the first period, both sides continued to drive hard towards goal after the first change of ends. Then, in the 24th minute, the 0:1 fell unfortunately following a scramble in front of goaltender Selma Luggin, with the puck bouncing over her left pad and into the net. The goal initially caused some unrest on the Austrian side. Austria looked prone to errors, but could rely on Luggin, who kept her team in the game – even on their own power play, when their neighbours launched a counter-attack.

In the 29th minute, Lena Artner had a huge chance, but Sandra Abstreiter denied her with the glove. Shortly afterwards, Anna Meixner had the equaliser on her stick. Selma Luggin again came up with a big save in the 35th minute, but a minute later she was powerless against Emily Nix's backhand effort into the top corner from less than two metres out.

Austria continued to battle and threw everything into finding a goal to pull one back, but it was not to come even in the final period. Despite the defeat, the Red-White-Red camp are not burying their heads in the sand. As was the case just over three years ago, anything is still possible in this tournament. However, Austria will now likely need two regulation-time victories against Hungary on Saturday and Slovakia on Sunday. Both games will be streamed live on Magenta Sport.

In the first game of the Olympic qualification tournament, Hungary recorded a 3:1 victory over Slovakia and are level with Germany at the top of the table.

Theresa Schafzahl: “When you start a tournament like that, it is difficult now. We know that we still have a chance. They are all good teams in the tournament, so anything can still happen. But at the moment, this defeat is very bitter, especially because we did not play as we can. We had a few chances, but it was not good enough today. To beat Germany, we have to deliver our best, and we did not quite do that today. We were a little intimidated at the start because we knew Germany are a good team. We then grew into the game, but it was not quite enough.”

Head Coach Alexander Bröms: “It was a close game. We had our chances, but did not get the puck into the net. We did not get into our game; we were not the fast, aggressive team we had set out to be. We allowed Germany to impose their game for far too long. We were also unable to produce our best hockey on the power plays. In the end, we have to say that we did not implement what we had set out to do.”