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The ÖFB team finally knows which opponents stand in the way of the 2022 World Cup.
Austria caught a feasible lot for qualification for the soccer World Cup in Zurich on Monday night. The ÖFB team faces former European champions Denmark (1992), Scotland, Israel, the Faroe Islands and the Republic of Moldova in Group F. The European qualification for the World Cup in Qatar, to be played from 21 November to December 18, 2022, starts on March 24 and ends on November 16, 2021. Only the ten group winners have their ticket to the final.
The runners-up and the top two Nations League group winners, who do not finish first or second in their qualifying groups, will play for the remaining three tickets to the World Cup in the play-off from March 24 to 29, 2022 A total of 13 of the 32 participants of the World Cup in Qatar come from Europe. Austria was last in a World Cup in France in 1998. The exact qualifying schedule will not be known until Tuesday (morning).
ÖFB team boss Franco Foda, who had wanted a group of six without his German home, watched the draw at home in front of the TV due to the crown crisis. “This is a very interesting and balanced group,” was the 54-year-old’s first reaction in the ORF interview. “Denmark is undoubtedly the easy favorite. Don’t forget that they also won (1-0 in the Nations League on October 14) in England. But everything is possible in the group,” Foda stressed.
“This is a group I’d like to take on. Not because it’s easy, but because we’ve drawn teams that we know and are on an equal footing with. We definitely have a chance. A home game would be great at first.” was the first reaction from team captain Julian Baumgartlinger.
Foda: “It is not an easy company”
However, Foda said that “it will not be an easy task” to achieve the desired first or second place. Because the Faroe Islands won their Nations League group (with Malta, Latvia and Andorra) undefeated with twelve points, and the Scots were second behind the Czech Republic and ahead of Israel and just like the current FIFA world rankings twelfth Denmark and Austria also in MS are there, “no team in this group should be underestimated,” said the ÖFB team boss.
Foda said of the Danes: “They are among the best in the world, as they have shown time and again in recent years with their performances. Like all Scandinavian teams, it is a very compact team that is always very, very good, especially on defense. They have a lot of athleticism in their game, they play fast, dynamically forward, and especially with (Yussuf) Poulsen (from RB Leipzig) they have quality up front, and with (Christian) Eriksen (from Inter Milan) the creator absolute game is a very compact, mature and experienced team, also with (Pierre-Emile) Höjbjerg, who plays for England (at Tottenham) in midfield (…), to name just a few, but anyway when we are playing at the highest level, we have the opportunity to score a point or two against such a team. “
“I am always optimistic”
The last friendly match with Denmark was lost on October 16, 2018 at Herning 0-2. ÖFB star David Alaba and company also meet three old qualifying acquaintances: Israel was already Austria’s opponent in EM qualification, Republic of Moldova before that in qualifying for the 2018 World Cup and the 2016 EM qualification And in the 2014 World Cup qualifiers there were the latest comparisons with the Faroe Islands. Scotland, on the other hand, was last in 1996 and 1997 in the World Cup qualifiers, Denmark in 1991 in the European Championship qualifiers and an Austrian competitor of the group.
“Israel has a lot of quality, especially in the offensive area,” says Foda, recalling Austria’s 2-4 defeat on March 24, 2019 in Haifa. Above all, the German highlighted Eran Zahavi, who now plays for PSV Eindhoven, Hoffenheim legionnaire Munas Dabbur and former WAC forward Shon Weissman, who has been under contract with Real Valladolid since the summer. “Defensively they are certainly vulnerable,” Foda said, however. Austria won the last duel so far last year in Vienna 3-1, at that time with Andreas Herzog as head of the Israeli team. It has not yet been decided who will succeed Austrian Willibald Ruttensteiner as team boss in Israel.
“I am always optimistic and I always want to win every game,” Foda said once again. We have the quality and we look positively to the future, and we have all the options in this group. Of course we still have a back door open through the Nations League, but we will do our best to finish first or second in this group. . “
Text as: © LAOLA1.at
2022 FIFA World Cup: these are Austria’s rivals in World Cup qualification
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