Austria celebrated a 10-0 (6-0) shooting festival against San Marino on the way to the 2026 World Cup – with a lot of help from stars and former stars from the Bundesliga and a new record goalscorer.
Former national coach Berti Vogts was viewed critically by many in the industry, even though he made Germany European champions in 1996. What has endured over the past three to four decades are a series of guiding principles that he established during his time in office between 1986 and 1994. One of them was: “There are no more little ones.” Of course, he also wanted to protect himself a bit from criticism when, despite being clear favorites, it was only enough to score 1-0.
Rangnick demanded a shooting festival – and got one
Ralf Rangnick almost became national coach, but when the DFB ignored him to succeed Joachim Löw in 2021, he hired in Austria. The former Bundesliga coach (Stuttgart, Schalke, Hoffenheim, Leipzig) works extremely successfully there and is extremely popular in the neighboring country to the south. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that he approaches games against supposedly small players in a completely different way than Berti Vogts.
In the press conference before the game against San Marino, Rangnick not only demanded a victory, but it should be a shooting festival: “We also have to think about our goal difference”Rangnick made it clear that every goal was important in the long-distance duel with Bosnia-Herzegovina. His team listened to him and celebrated football fireworks in the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna.
Arnautovic passes Polster
The game during the comeback of Rangnick, who had missed the October international matches due to several ankle operations and hospitalization, ended with a result that has actually become rare in international football: Team Austria won by double digits and now has a new record goalscorer in Marko Arnautovic. Arnautovic, often classified as disciplinarily difficult, celebrated what felt like his tenth spring under Rangnick. The ex-Bremen player scored four times against San Marino – and with 45 goals for the ÖFB, he passed legendary striker Toni Polster.
By the way, Arnautovic wasn’t the only one who played or is still playing in the Bundesliga during his career. The entire starting eleven without exception has already played in Germany, and the other goal scorers, with one exception, are well known to all fans in this country: Romano Schmid, Michael Gregoritsch, Stefan Posch (2) and Konrad Laimer scored, as well as Rapid player Nikolaus Wurmbrand – who will almost certainly move to the Bundesliga soon.
Victory against Malta replaced – against number 210
With 10-0, the Austrians wrote national football history that evening, and not just thanks to Arnautovic – they had never won a game by double digits. The highest success to date was a 9-0 win against Malta in 1977. When it comes to San Marino, however, it should be noted that FIFA currently lists the small country at number 210 in the world rankings. A total of 211 nations and territories are listed.