On Tuesday evening in Vienna’s Prater there was a football game that started as half an away game and ended as a home game only. Between these two poles there were six goals for the Austrian national team and one for the Turkish national team. Including three penalties and a disallowed goal through video evidence, all sorts of emotional skirmishes and three goals by a player from the German Bundesliga.
Around 125,000 Turkish citizens live in Austria, and at least as many Austrians are likely to have Turkish roots. It was to be expected that many of them would take the opportunity to see the team from their fathers’ country play – a team, mind you, in which a large part of the team also learned to play football in the diaspora. Like Hakan Calhanoglu from Mannheim, who led the Turks as captain. It was he who scored a penalty goal after 25 minutes to make it 1-1, fueling the supporters’ hopes that a similar coup could be achieved as the victory over Germany in Berlin in November.
In this phase of the game, not only did the guests dominate on the pitch, but their supporters in the stands also took vocal control. “Türkiye, Türkiye,” echoed up to the roof. And in the curve, which was decorated with red Turkish flags, a sea of lights shone from thousands of cell phones. It was just a “friendly international match”, as the stadium spokesman said, but it was played with determination by both of them. They wanted to know where they stood almost a quarter of a year before the European Championships, for which both the Austrians and the Turks had confidently qualified.
“If you let them kick, you’ll have problems.”
After the game, the Austrians in particular can have their hopes up. Coach Ralf Rangnick, not really a fan of exuberance, praised the “extremely strong team performance” and the second half was “almost perfect”. He hadn’t overlooked the fact that his team had gotten into trouble a few times in the first half. Turkey has good footballers and fast attackers, said Rangnick; it was no coincidence that they would have defeated Germany. “If you let them kick, you’ll have problems.”
But Rangnick’s players solved these problems with the means that the Swabian has instilled in them since he took over the team around two years ago: running, pressing, standing on the opponent’s feet, even when he tries to build up his game from the back . It is no coincidence that almost all of Austria’s goals that evening came from situations in which the ball was won close to the opponent’s penalty area. “Pressing goals,” Rangnick happily called them. The Austrian Ernst Happel, once a funny defender and grumpy successful coach, after whom the stadium is named, was considered an early perfectionist when it came to pressing.
With all of this, you also have to say: Everything came together in a happy way for Austria. They were ruthlessly efficient. And referee Daniele Chiffi tolerated an Italian robustness that favored a style of play based on winning the ball à la Xaver Schlager, Nikolas Seiwald or Konrad Laimer, rather than one that wanted to reach the goal with Calhanoglu’s fine passes to quick tips.
Christoph Baumgartner was the man of the evening in the Austrians’ previous game. On Friday, not only Florian Wirtz scored a lightning goal for Germany against France, but a few hours earlier Baumgartner scored an even quicker one against Slovakia. His solo run with a goal just seven seconds after kick-off is said to have been an international world record. On Tuesday, Baumgartner was in the shadow of Michael Gregoritsch. Shortly before the break, the Freiburg professional scored with a left to make it 2-1, and shortly after the break he headed it to make it 3-1. And since goalkeeper Ugurcan Cakir still had his hand both times, that was just as much a part of the Austrian game’s luck as the two penalty decisions based on video study in the second half. Gregoritsch took advantage of one penalty and generously left the other to his friend Baumgartner.
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The Turkish players reacted to their frustration in different ways: on the one hand through scuffles that resulted in warnings, and on the other hand through fruitless lobs and overhead kicks. The result was the 6:1 thanks to a combination of substitutes Patrick Wimmer and Maximilian Entrup. A cool wind had long been blowing through the rows in the stands, which were initially so densely packed with Turkish fans.
Despite all the relativizations and warnings, not least the Austrians themselves: That was the fifth win in a row, they have only lost one of the last 14 games. And they now had to replace their most well-known players, David Alaba (knee injury), Marko Arnautovic (muscle injury) and Marcel Sabitzer (flu). It wasn’t just self-protection when the coaches of both opponents this week said in unison: This team could be the surprise team at the European Championships in the summer.
