[ad_1]
The Austrian Under-21 national team can still hope to qualify for the 2021 European Championship. Team boss Werner Gregoritsch’s team celebrated an important 1-0 victory in Kosovo.
The ÖFB-Elf finds it difficult to enter the game and must cope with the first impact after half an hour: Dominik Reiter lies down without the influence of an opponent and immediately grabs his knee. It cannot continue.
The home team scored the first supposed goal shortly before half-time, but the Kosovars’ goal after a free-kick cross was not properly scored due to the offside position.
After changing sides, the Austrians increase the pressure, after a foul on Hannes Wolf there is a penalty alarm, but the referee’s whistle remains silent (67th).
A short time later, Kelvin gave Arase a great opportunity to take the lead, he thundered the ball on the lower edge of the bar (74). Three minutes before the end of regulation time, the winning goal falls: Joker Marco Grüll hits the ball in the far corner after substitute Alexander Schmidt (87th).
To keep alive the possibility of participating in the final, the ÖFB-U21 need more victories in Turkey (November 13 in Samsun) and against Andorra (November 17 in Ried).
Austria remains second in Group 3 with 15 points, four points behind leaders England, who are one game short. Albania lurks behind the youngsters of the ÖFB with eleven points.
Of the runners-up from the nine groups, only the top five will qualify for the first half of the European Championships in Hungary and Slovenia next March.
The ÖFB team is having a hard time
Gregoritsch, who missed the two most recent defeats against Albania (1: 5) and England (1: 2) due to a minor heart attack, made four changes compared to the home game against England. New to the team were David Schnegg, returning Kevin Danso, Lukas Malicsek and Rapid’s diamond in the rough Yusuf Demir.
It was also Demir who knew how to put some accents in the first half. The most dangerous was a volley shot that went just above the goal (11th). Furthermore, only LASK forward Marko Raguz came close to scoring (43).
The ÖFB team had a hard time, because despite being clearly overweight in terms of participation in the game, the necessary speed was lacking in the game. Often the last pass was missing. The Kosovars were well controlled, apart from a rightly denied offside goal (42nd), there was nothing to do with the home side’s offense.
That didn’t really change after the break. ÖFB’s proteges went ahead, Demir closed after a good action next to the goal, Gladbach’s Hannes Wolf claimed a penalty after a duel in the penalty area in vain (67) and “Joker” Kelvin Arase hit the ball after a missed chance for Demir on the bar (74).
Two minutes later, the locals nearly turned the game around, with Muharrem Jashari aiming past the far corner. In the end, the guests were able to celebrate at the Stadiumi Fadil Vokrri. In a combination of two alternates, Grüll met after the work of Alexander Schmidt. The action was initiated by strong Demir.
In contrast to 4-0 at home on November 15, 2019, you had a lot more problems. With the loss of LASK player Dominik Reiter, there was also a disappointment, the 22-year-old was taken off the pitch after just under half an hour.
Gregoritsch: “An absolute victory of the will”
“It was an absolute victory for my team, which was great throughout the week. We now have a final week in November. That was our goal for this course,” says team boss Werner Gregoritsch.
There is special praise for the gold scorer Marco Grüll: “I am very happy for Marco, he did an excellent job with the goal. It was a relief when the ball finally entered the goal because we had already created some chances.”
Grüll himself can cheer on his first U21 goal: “Of course I’m happy to have scored my first U21 goal. But I’m even happier that I was able to help the team with it.”
Austria played with: Ehmann – Reiter (28. Thurnwald), Klarer, Aiwu (86. Maresic), Schnegg (61. Arase) – Danso, L. Malicsek – P. Schmidt (61. Grüll), Demir, Wolf – Raguz (85. A. Schmidt)
Text as: © LAOLA1.at
Hannes Wolf: “I should avoid trying to please everyone”
to the top » COMMENT_COUNT comments
User comments do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the LAOLA1 editorial team. LAOLA1 reserves the right to remove comments without giving reasons, especially if they violate criminal or civil law regulations, contradict common decency, or go against LAOLA1’s reputation. In this context, we refer in particular to our Terms of Use. In such cases, the user cannot assert any claim. Furthermore, Sportradar Media Services GmbH reserves the right to assert claims for damages and report criminal law offenses.
