2023-09-12 20:48:17
The ticket for EURO 2024 is ready for Austria’s national football team. The ÖFB team won 3-1 (0-0) in Solna on Tuesday against Sweden thanks to a strong performance after the break and has thus taken a giant step towards the European Championship finals in Germany. Michael Gregoritsch (53rd) and Marko Arnautovic (56th, 69th/penalty) redeemed the ÖFB team, which had lost in the first half. Emil Holm scored in the finish to make the final score.
Austria remains second in qualifying group F after five games, unbeaten, behind leaders Belgium with the same points. Since the best two teams qualify, Ralf Rangnick’s team has a European Championship ticket within reach with a seven point lead over Sweden with three games remaining. Two points from the games against Belgium on October 13th in Vienna and away against the outsiders Azerbaijan on October 16th and Estonia on November 16th are enough for the Austrians to take part in the European Championships for the third time in a row.
Rangnick relied on Arnautovic alongside Gregoritsch in the attack. Christoph Baumgartner, who scored twice in the 2-0 win in Vienna, only had a place on the substitutes’ bench. In the four-man defense chain, Phillipp Mwene was given preference over Maximilian Wöber on the left, while Philipp Lienhart came into play centrally next to David Alaba.
After a minute’s silence for the victims of the natural disasters in Morocco and Libya, the Austrians had their first good attack in front of over 43,000 spectators, but Stefan Posch shot over the goal after 80 seconds.
After that, the home team, who were under pressure to win, repeatedly put the red-white-red defense under pressure. A shot from Viktor Gyökeres was too weak (5th), headers from Alexander Isak (7th) and Gyökeres (17th) caused no problems for goalkeeper Alexander Schlager, Isak came a little short on a cross (32nd), captain Victor Lindelöf was unable to properly convert a free kick (45′).
On the other side, a good Arnautovic shot was blocked (15th). But the Austrians were mostly challenged on defense in the first half and rarely managed to build up the game in a regular manner.
But at the start of the second half, the two red-white-red strikers struck. Gregoritsch gave the Austrians the lead with a header from Posch’s cross (53′), three minutes later the ball passed through Konrad Laimer and Marcel Sabitzer to Arnautovic, who hit between the legs of goalkeeper Robin Olsen (56′). After a nice solo by Mwene and a foul by Isak Hien in the penalty area, Arnautovic finally made everything clear with a penalty (69′).
For the record team player, it was goals number 35 and 36 in his 110th international match. He moved ahead of Hans Krankl (34) and is now the second best international goalscorer for Austria behind Toni Polster (44).
In the 91st minute, Holm made it 1:3 without consequences. Thanks to a confident second half, the ÖFB team won the fourth duel with Sweden in a row and is already eight games unbeaten. This means that planning for the European Championship finals in the neighboring country can now begin.
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