Austria have steadily improved at the European Championship and are now aiming to qualify for the quarter-finals for the first time against Turkey. The Dutch will be challenged by Romania.
Anyone who backed Austria to win Group D before the European Championships has probably earned themselves a nice bit of extra money. After all, France and the Netherlands were certainly more popular with the bookmakers in this regard. However, with two wins against Poland and the Netherlands, Ralf Rangnick's team has hoisted itself to the top - and left the French behind despite a 1-0 defeat in the head-to-head.
This opening game was the moment when the first doubts about the team's performance began to arise in Austria. About whether the team could break under the high expectations. Observers had long since attached the label of secret favorites to the ÖFB selection.
After the group win and the convincing performances so far at this tournament, they see their assessment confirmed. The Austrians look homogeneous and show that Rangnick's typical football with high counter-pressing also works at national team level. The 66-year-old German is doing such a convincing job in the Austrian association that Bayern Munich would have liked to poach him in their odyssey to find a new coach.
But Rangnick knows that he can achieve something with these Austrians. This is the second time they have reached the last 16 of a European Championship. Three years ago, they only lost to the eventual European champions Italy in extra time (1:2). Now they face Turkey in Leipzig on Tuesday (9pm), an opponent who has left an ambivalent impression so far: The convincing 3:1 win over Georgia in the opener was followed by an error-strewn performance against Portugal (0:3), and against the Czechs they had to worry at times about progressing (2:1) despite being outnumbered for long periods.
If advancing to the last eight would be a first for Austria, the Turks have achieved this twice before (2000 and 2008).
Romania's memory of 2000
The second match on Tuesday is a clash between two teams who started the tournament victoriously but have been waiting for a win for the past two games. The Dutch actually have ambitions of competing for the title at a continental tournament. However, the "Elftal" have not made it past the quarter-finals since 2004. For Romania, on the other hand, making it past the round of 16 would be a great success. In 2000, when they played a quarter-final against Italy (0:2) at the European Championships in Belgium and the Netherlands, no knockout round had ever been played before.
