Austria boosted their hopes of reaching the last 16 of Euro 2024 on Friday when Marko Arnautovic scored in an impressive 3-1 victory over Poland, for whom Robert Lewandowski could only manage an ineffective substitute appearance. Ralf Rangnick’s Austria are likely to qualify for the round of 16 if they can avoid defeat in their final Group D game against the Netherlands on Tuesday. Poland can no longer finish in the top two and almost certainly need to beat France to have any chance of progressing as one of the four best third-placed teams. Gernot Trauner headed Austria into a deserved lead before Krzysztof Piatek, who had missed the opening defeat to the Netherlands, equalized for Poland after 30 minutes.
Lewandowski was introduced for his first appearance of the tournament with half an hour remaining but was a peripheral figure as Poland fell to the brink of elimination.
Christoph Baumgartner put Austria back in front after some fine collective play and an end-to-end game was ended by an Arnautovic penalty in the 78th minute.
Austria, who reached the knockout stages of a major tournament for the first time since 1954 at Euro 2020, will be sure of progressing if they beat the Dutch, who face France on Friday.
Lewandowski was not fit to start after suffering a thigh injury last week, although Poland coach Michal Probierz said he was hopeful the Barcelona striker could play.
Fans from both countries, which border Germany, filled the Olympiastadion.
The Polish fans who made the short trip outnumbered their counterparts, but it was the wall of supporters in red Austrian shirts who jumped up and down in celebration less than nine minutes later.
His side started in dominant fashion and were rewarded with the lead when defender Trauner headed the ball past Polish goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny after a clever move by left-back Phillipp Mwene.
However, Poland grew in the competition and Nicola Zalewski wasted a good opportunity to equalize when he shot over.
The two most recent meetings between the teams, in the Euro 2020 qualifiers, produced just one goal.
– Piatek attacks –
But this time an entertaining game was leveled just before the half-hour mark, with Piatek attacking from close range after Trauner blocked Jan Bednarek’s shot.
Austria wasted an excellent opportunity to regain the lead in a three-on-two attack, but Bednarek blocked Marcel Sabitzer’s shot.
Rangnick’s side almost fell behind in first-half stoppage time when goalkeeper Patrick Pentz was forced to stop following Piotr Zielinski’s free-kick.
Austria started the second half brightly, with Szczesny keeping out Stefan Posch’s header.
A huge noise echoed through the stadium when Lewandowski made his entrance in the 60th minute.
His only involvement of note was receiving a yellow card shortly after entering the field for hitting Philipp Lienhart in the face with his elbow.
Austria went back in front with a wonderfully worked goal in the 66th minute.
Arnautovic avoided substitute Alexander Prass’s incisive pass and Baumgartner took one touch and coolly placed the ball into the bottom corner.
Austria could have taken all three points with 15 minutes remaining when Patrick Wimmer’s low shot was pushed to safety by the increasingly busy Szczesny.
But the third goal arrived shortly afterwards when Arnautovic calmly slotted home a penalty after Sabitzer had scored and been brought down by Szczesny.
Austria threatened to make the final result embarrassing for Poland, with Szczesny making a brilliant fingertip save from Posch’s long-range effort.
The Poles were suddenly in trouble and Konrad Laimer shot wide of the open goal after rounding Sczcesny, but even that miss failed to take the shine off Austria’s third major tournament victory in 34 years.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Topics mentioned in this article
This story originally appeared on ndtv.com read the full story
