After their emphatic victory over Finland in the previous stage last month, Britain went through to the qualifying group which throws up some of the most challenging games they have faced against Austria, France and Iceland.

 

The Austria team are a relatively unknown quantity for Britain, but will not be underestimated by the team, who have been studying footage from their more recent match against the Czech Republic.

 

Following tomorrow's match, Britain return to London to take on former world champions France at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in London on Saturday (October 17).

 

Head coach Jesper Holmris was relishing the challenge of top-class international action.

 

He said: "France are one of the best teams in the world and Austria are ranked in the Top 20.

 

"They both have players playing in the top clubs in Europe so it’s going to be a good experience for us but very tough.

 

"We have a DVD of their last game against the Czech Republic which they played three weeks ago and hopefully we can have a good tactical session before the match and have a good game as well.

 

"It's difficult because I don't know which players they will use.

 

"They play in a certain style, but Austria are a team that are underestimated a lot by the other teams in Europe because between championships they don’t normally do very well, but then at the Championships themselves they do very well.

 

"They beat the Czech Republic, probably easily, three weeks ago and we have lost against the Czech Republic so it’s going to be a big, big challenge.

 

"Of course we accept that they are at another level but we have to play to our strengths and hopefully we will have a good match against them.”

 

Britain's captain Lynn McCafferty said: "Some of us saw Austria two years ago in the World Championships and you could tell that they were a good team.

 

"We're not stupid, we know we’re not a fully fitted team yet - we've still got some time to go and we're going to play to our strengths; our goalkeeper, our defence our fast breaks and, again, we want to use these matches to improve our attack."

 

The match in Feldkirchen starts at 7pm British time.

 

Regular updates will be posted on the British Handball website. sh

 

 

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