Austria won the country’s first American football European championship when it defeated Finland with four touchdowns, 28–0. Finland achieved its best performance in more than 20 years.
Playing on their home field in St. Pölten, Austria defeated Finland in the European American Football Championship final with four touchdowns, 28–0 (7–0).
Austria has been in the European Championship final twice, but the championship is their first. In 2011, the country reached the World Championships.
Even after the first quarter, Finland, who went into the match as underdogs, hung in a 0-0 draw, and even at half-time the situation was only 7-0 in favor of Austria, which was cheering for professional players.
The match was decided after the break when Austria managed to score touchdowns, including a winger Philip Haun caught three. Austria gained 310 yards in the game, 293 of them by rushing.
Finland advanced 158 yards, the team’s best rusher Karri Pajarinen pinkoi 55.
Finland was never successful in its attempts to score. Pajarinen was disappointed with the attacking game after the match.
– The attack didn’t work and we couldn’t score points. It doesn’t matter what happens on the field if there are no points. Sometimes sport is fun and on days like this it’s not so fun, Pajarinen said.
– Nothing here, the better team won. There’s nothing more to it than that.
In the defense of Finland Timi Nuikka and Taavi Aronpää each stopped the opponent six times.
On the men’s side, Finland achieved its best performance in more than 20 years in American football, as its previous European Championship silver was from 2001. Finland won bronze last time in 2021.
Having won 14 EC medals throughout history, Finland is the most successful country in Europe in American football. Success was at its greatest in 1991–2001, when Finland won four gold and two silver medals. Since then, the medals have been bronze.
Finland secured a place in the final by beating Sweden 33–14 (19–0) in the semifinals in August.
The bronze went to Italy, who defeated Sweden 26–7.