By Karolos Grohmann
BERLIN (Reuters) – Austria are leaving Euro 2024 having at times dazzled with their high-octane style but also knowing there was potentially more in it for Ralf Rangnick’s team than a round of 16 exit.
The Austrians suffered a 2-1 loss to Turkey in a pulsating match on Tuesday and, despite a golden stoppage time chance for an equaliser, it left them still without a knockout match win in any tournament since 1954.
But Austria had gone into the Euros as one of the dark horses, following a near-perfect qualifying campaign with one draw and one defeat.
Their precision passing and high-pressing attacking style that Rangnick developed quickly showed results in Germany as they topped a difficult group that also included Netherlands, Poland and France.
Weeks before the tournament started Rangnick had decided against a move to Bayern Munich, opting to remain in his post.
A 1-0 opening group defeat by France was their only slip-up at the first stage as they followed it up with consecutive wins over Poland and the Dutch to set an early marker.
Despite the absence of the injured David Alaba, who was part of the squad as a non-playing captain, Austria produced an attractive playing style with midfielders Marcel Sabitzer and Christoph Baumgartner constantly pushing their team forward with a no-frills passing game that took opponents by surprise.
By the time they beat the Netherlands in their last group game with a late winner for a 3-2 victory to top arguably the toughest group in the tournament, the football world had sat up to take notice and was raving about Austria’s attractive play.
“Four entertaining games, super intense – I saw games that were difficult to stay awake for, but that is not the case with us,” Rangnick said.
“This was a historic chance to win, to go to the quarter-final and play against the Netherlands. I cannot believe that we’re going home today. We thought that we would continue our journey here.”
They were let down by their defending on set pieces against the Turks and their exit left Austrians with a bitter aftertaste, knowing they had the quality to go further in the tournament than ever before.
“Now we need to take this … into the (2026) World Cup qualifications,” said Rangnick.
“If we continue to play the way we have in these four games then we have a good chance to qualify for the World Cup.”
Few would bet against Austria making it, with the team’s average age of 26.8 years being one of the youngest at the Euros.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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