23. March 2026
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WFCQU19 2026: France – Austria 4-12 (2-5, 0-5. 2-2)

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

While Germany was already qualified, Sunday 8th February 2026 still hosted a showdown en route to Italy. At the first match of the final day of the European Under 19 Women World Floorball Championships. Austria faced France. They still had the chance to qualify for the main event. While they were in a favorite position before that match, they came with a handicap  of a goal difference which was worse by 16 goals compared to Hungary. Thus, they had to push for a higher goal difference in the match. Austria had to close up that gap as much as possible. Here is my review.

This posting comes with a section of 483 major size pictures in a dedicated event section of the sports galleries.

 

France – Austria – Match Report

Austria had a fantastic start of the match. They put France under huge pressure from the very first moment of the game. Furthermore, they scored twice early in the game. Two goals by Anna Meusberger in the fourth minute stunned France and the spectators at the An der Rennbahn Elementary School. Instead of keeping up that playbook, they became significantly more passive right after the following face-off. France could close up in the sixth minute by Calynn Bulle, which felt like an Austrian gift. After a hit-in from the faceoff spot, an Austrian defender deflected the shot in a way that it flew over unlucky goalie Lore Hemmer. However, France neglected their defense too much at the beginning of the match. Eight seconds later, Flora Kuscher already cheered after scoring her team’s third goal.

In the ninth minute, Austria went into power-play after a hit by Camille Wenzel. Again, they did not act cleverly.  Miriam Kistenich moved the ball at a free hit for France (10th) and during the equally short-handed period, Kuscher joined her after an incorrect hit. There was almost a minute of five-on-three power play for France, who could not convert that into a goal. Overall, the whole match was nervous, imprecise and had a lot of absolutely avoidable steals and turnovers. Austria did not get back to their initial pressure, both teams had opportunities to score. However, scoring was on the Austrians who did that thrice in the 18th minutes. While they first cheered on goals by Clara Schmidt-Wellenberg and Lina Weber, the third one rather lead to struggle. Schmidt-Wellenberg hit the foot of Mara Hollinger, leading to a own goal. Nonetheless, the 5-2 lead kept Austria’s thoughts alive that they were en route for the Under 19 WFC qualification.

 

 

Austria Made Hungary nervous in the 2nd Period

The first period was majorly really hard to watch, the level of the game simply had been too low. The second period got better. A key factor for that, though, was that France completely lost their game, leading to less unforced mistakes by their opponents. First, Austria made impressing use of this. Kuscher cheered first, adding the sixth Austrian goal after just twelve seconds. In the 25th minute, Emma Kragten scored from the slot, followed by Meusberger’s third goal just 22 seconds later. 35 minutes were still left to play, Austria already had a six goal lead. While Bulle was in the sin bin after an incorrect hit, Stina Ambrosi even increased that lead in power play in the 29th minute. France felt exhausted, there were too major gaps in their defense now.

It now even felt possible that Austria could win by 16 goals or more. In that case, Hungary would have to at least tie Germany in the final game. But similar to the beginning of the first period, they felt sloppy in their offensive game. The score of 2-9 stayed for almost ten minutes, before Kuscher at least added Austria’s tenth goal with two minutes left in the second period. Despite a 5-0 score for her team in the second period, they just could not be happy with these twenty minutes under those circumstances.

 

A Small French Come-Back in the Last Period

The Austrian coach at least felt to have found the right words in the intermission. Kelly Frimat was France’s goalie in the third period – and she faced two early Austrian welcome presents. Just after 47 seconds, Kuscher scored again. Austria’s other sniper of the day, Meusberger, increased the lead to ten goals just 80 seconds later. Another time, Austria felt to have a perfect momentum in the game. However, you somehow know how these stories ended up on that day in Berlin. France even gave Austria a chance to score on, when Mali Colicchio was penalized in the 45th minute, but the only remaining Austrian entry in the match report of this battle was a bench penalty against Romy Hagleitner (48th) and a time out, which felt being a bit too later.

France, who felt so tired and exhausted before, must have felt the opportunity for a happier ending of this defeat. They just had six shots on goal in the third period, but some were from really nice spots. Chloe Vuagniaux scored in the 55th minute and Apolline Gallon added the fourth French goal with 24 seconds left on the match clock. Thus a seven goal Austrian lead after 28 minutes and a ten goal lead after 42 minutes reduced to eight goals when the buzzer announced the end of the match.

 

France – Austria – My View of the Match

An eight goal victory is definitely a remarkable result for Austria. However, they somehow could not be happy with that result in my point of view. There were several situations in which they had a strong momentum and a lot of pressure on the French team – and just wasted that. On top of that, they lost their game towards the end. The two late French goals had a big potential to be crucial for the Austrians, giving Hungary in the deciding showdown a realistic starting position for the final match.

Austria had a big chance for a double digit goal difference here. I would even say, they should have come close or even make the sixteen goals gap. However, they did not feel ready for that in key situations of that match. While they were already on the way home, they now had to pray for some strong snipes by the Piefkes – something which likely did not lead to too much comfort in the Austrian soul.

 

France – Austria – Lineups

France: 42 Maelys Degoute, 39 Claire Paret, 93 Kelly Frimat – 2 Anne-Louise Brion, 5 Mali Colicchio, 6 Calynn Bulle, 7 Lilou Verdon, 9 Penelope Causse, 10 Chloe Vuagniaux, 15 Marie-Laure Chapon, 17 Anais Moinard, 20 Jade Goncalves, 21 Camille Wenzel, 22 Apolline Gallon, 26 Lily Forsman, 32 Leïla Varlet

Austria: 28 Lore Hemmer, 88 Robyn Truttmann – 4 Miriam Kistenich, 5 Flora Kuscher, 19 Sophie Haushofer, 24 Mara Hollinger 25 Elisabeth Fiereder, 27 Emma Kragten, 29 Marisol Lumplecker, 31 Marie Brabant, 33 Emma Plank, 34 Romy Hagleitner, 35 Clara Schmidt-Wellenburg, 37 Stina Ambrosi, 39 Anna Meusburger, 41 Lina Heber, 78 Katarina Dareb

 

France – Austria – Gallery

In the sports gallery, there is a designated major size picture gallery as part of the 2026 WFCQU19 Berlin gallery group with 483 pictures of this match at

 

France

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