Under Ralf Rangnick, Austria’s men’s soccer team has taken another step forward. With a view to the EURO, the team’s self-confidence is high.
A 1-0 win in Baku against Azerbaijan in mid-October was enough for the Austrian national team to book their ticket to the 2024 European Championship early. Six wins, one draw and one narrow defeat against group winners Belgium is the record of Ralf Rangnick’s team. With the successful qualification, his contract was automatically extended until the 2026 World Cup.
The mood is euphoric. The ÖFB motto “Everything is possible at Neighbor 2024” underlines the claim of the team, which consists largely of professionals from the German Bundesliga and will meet the DFB team on Tuesday (November 21st, 2023, from 8:45 p.m. here in the full audio report).
Under Foda the base, under Rangnick that Further development
Austria is currently in 25th place in the world rankings, and the trend is rising slightly. The last international tournament of the selection to date will be four years ago when the ball rolls in Germany in 2024. After a disappointing exit for the Austrians in the World Cup qualification for the 2022 tournament, Franco Foda resigned as national coach.
Foda had previously been unfortunately eliminated in the round of 16 at the last European Championship against eventual tournament winners Italy, but in 2018, for example, he also celebrated a victory he had longed for for over 30 years against a DFB team. When he said goodbye he said: “It’s been four and a half great years. My successor can look forward to a team with impeccable character, which is good and has a lot of development potential.”
Austria’s Marko Arnautović in a duel with opponent Joonas Tamm from Estonia in the European Championship qualifier.
Rangnick seems to be making good use of the potential at ÖFB so far. With Belgium and Sweden as direct competitors, as well as ambitious Armenians and the team from Estonia, qualification was not a sure-fire success and the two confident victories over Sweden and the strong performances against Belgium were particularly impressive. The team appeared to have matured and didn’t let themselves be disturbed against Sweden, for example, when the score was 0-0 until the final phase, even though they were clearly superior. In the end, the Rangnick team won 2-0.
“Home games” in Germany
The team’s sporting figurehead is still David Alaba. But the team has more to offer than just the nine-time Austrian Footballer of the Year from Real Madrid. A number of highly decorated Bundesliga professionals play alongside him, such as Munich’s Konrad Laimer, Xaver Schlager and Christoph Baumgartner (both RB Leipzig) or Marcel Sabitzer from BVB. In the last group game against Estonia, only three of eleven players who are not currently playing in the Bundesliga were in the starting line-up.
Alaba also sees the fact that the team can now compete at a high level in terms of its breadth: “I believe that we are fundamentally a team that doesn’t need to hide from anyone.”
euphoria and Confidence
After just one defeat in qualifying, a considerable amount of self-confidence appears to have emerged with a view to the finals in Germany. “Everything can be done at the neighbor’s,” for example, is also written on the red shirts in which the team celebrated their qualification success. A marketing pun, but maybe also reality?
This is what came from the throats of some fans of the Austrian team who had traveled with us after the final whistle against Azerbaijan: “Berlin, Berlin, we are driving to Berlin.”
Rangnick remains objective as usual
Ralf Rangnick prefers to remain realistic: “You have three group opponents and you can’t afford any slip-ups, otherwise it can be over again very quickly. But that applies to every nation, the Germans also experienced that at the World Cup. If you start a group like that with a defeat, then you are immediately under pressure.”
These groups will be drawn on December 2nd. Austria missed out on making it to draw pot 1, which is made up of the five best group winners and hosts Germany, by one point. So at least one of the “big ones” is waiting in the group.
Derby against the neighbor
Germany against Austria at the EURO, for example, would also be the next reunion of two coaches whose paths already crossed in Leipzig: Rangnick once brought Julian Nagelsmann to RB. “I am convinced that Germany has the chance and the potential to play a really good European Championship“, explained Rangnick before the direct duel with his former club colleague on Tuesday in Vienna.
“Overall it will be an explosive, exciting duel. At club level you would call it a derby“, Rangnick continued. In any case, it is a (further) assessment of the situation for both opponents. And perhaps on Tuesday it will show that “everything is possible” for the neighbor. One way or another.