A warning shot for the World Cup qualification-Diepresse.com
The ÖFB team again does not capitalize from its almost one-hour playful superiority against Serbia and misses the promotion to the A-League of the top teams through a 0: 2 in Belgrade.
Football is not always fair, which of course doesn’t have to be. He is primarily a result sport. And the result spoke against Serbia A clearly negative language from a Austrian point of view.
After a 1-1 in the first leg on Thursday in Vienna, the Serbs won the second leg Sunday evening in Belgrade 2-0. Goals from Nikola Maksimović (56.) and Dušan Vlahović (90th) had destroyed all the hopes of the Austrians for the desired Nation League promotion to the A-League of the top nations. The ÖFB team ended the evening tenth: Gernot Trauner had seen red after an emergency brake in the 68th minute. This game or the mission of the climb must be seen as a setback in Ralf Rangnick’s era.
As a reminder: Austria had dominated the first duel between the two teams three days earlier and earned numerous chances, but had not passed a 1-1 draw. The ÖFB team also continued in Belgrade where it stopped in Vienna. It occurred confidently, dictated the action on the lawn, but with the exception of a chance of Romano Schmid (23rd), however, was too rarely concrete. As a home team, Serbia lurked on counter opportunities, did not even try to tear the game itself. This could certainly be understood as a sign of respect for the opponent.
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Laimer collected kilometers and revitalized the game. Pa pictures / Armin Rauthner
Austria was 55 minutes of toning to let the Serbia campaign into this game with a single campaign. Maksimović (56.) punished in their own penalty area (56.) the failed attempt to build the game of goalkeeper Alexander Schlager and Nicolas Seiwald – it was nothing more than an own goal.
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With the continuation of the game, Rangnick’s players were unsettled, they sometimes lost the tactical basic order. This had rarely been seen in the previous 33 games under the leadership of German. In the last half an hour, Austria struggled in vain to Trauner’s exclusion.
Team boss Rangnick said after the final whistle: « We played the game for 56 minutes in the style of a home team, as in the first leg, but made a little too little out of it. This result is in a way absurd. The first goal was half a own goal. We already missed it in the first leg to get to Belgrade with a lead. »
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Alaba was substituted late in the game, but he no longer brought the turnaround. Pa pictures / Armin Rauthner
For the second time in the past 29 international matches, Austria did not score a goal. Most recently, the 0: 1 against France (EM 2024) was unsuccessful. The recent three games against Slovenia (1: 1) and Serbia (1: 1, 0: 2) should and must stimulate thinking. Especially the lost comparison with the Serbs serves as a warning shot for the World Cup qualification starting on June 7th with the home game against Romania.
Austria played with: A. Schlager – Wimmer, Trauner, Lienhart, Mwene (46th grill) – Grillitsch (75th Alaba), Seiwald – Schmid, Laimer, Cham (46. Arnautović) – Gregoritsch (75th Stöger).
