SPower failure, long game delay, home defeat and then a mysterious hole in the center circle: A lot went wrong in the 1:2 home defeat of the Austrian national football team against Denmark, who had previously won 2:1 at world champions France. After the game had to be kicked off 90 minutes late, a deep hole in the field of Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium caused a stir after the final whistle.
Danish striker Andreas Skov Olsen discovered the hole in the center circle after the final whistle. TV footage showed him and some of his team-mates stepping into the center circle hole, half of Skov’s lower leg disappearing into it. Apparently it must have been after the final whistle, because it would have been noticed during the game and would have increased the risk of injury and caused an interruption.
It is probably a result of the heavy rains during the night from Sunday to Monday. As a result, the groundwater level has risen due to the nearby Danube. The groundwater would have pressed onto the playing surface from below, explained the managing director of the Austrian Football Association (ÖFB), Bernhard Neuhold, on Tuesday. “As a result, a cavity has obviously formed, which has ended in this hole.”
But that’s not why Ralf Rangnick felt “like in the wrong movie”. Rather, the German team boss of the Austrians was annoyed by the unfortunate defeat: “We had eight top-class chances, the Danes not half as many,” said the 63-year-old, who still found a lot of praise for his players. “We gave it our all in terms of energy and power.” Former Bundesliga professional Pierre-Emil Höjbjerg (28th) and Jens Stryger Larsen (84th) scored for the Danes, Wolfsburg’s Xaver Schlager (67th) scored the equalizer.
The circumstances of the game were more than unusual. A power failure in Vienna’s 2nd district led to a one-and-a-half-hour delay because the floodlights weren’t working. In the dark arena, the 18,700 fans of the red-white-red team bridged the waiting time with La Ola and switched on mobile phone lamps to the Blue Danube Waltz, among other things.
After Falco’s hit “Out of the Dark” had been played, the lights in the Stadion im Prater went on. Rangnick: “It wasn’t easy to keep the suspense high, but both teams managed to do it.” The whistle could only be kicked off at 10.15 p.m., and at 00.08 a.m. the first defeat for the Austrians under Rangnick was sealed.
This Tuesday, further examinations were carried out in the stadium with a special device similar to an X-ray with a lawn specialist in order to detect any further cavities. “We cannot say whether there is any further danger here. What we can say is that we are trying everything preventively,” explained Neuhold. According to him, the analysis should be completed on Wednesday. According to the ÖFB, the upcoming Nations League game on Friday (8.45 p.m. / DAZN) against world champion France is not at risk.
