LEIPZIG, Germany (Reuters) – More than a few eyebrows were raised when Austria hired manager Ralf Rangnick in 2022 after a miserable stint at Manchester United, but the 66-year-old German has turned Austria into Euro 2024 contenders — and earned the nation’s respect.
Austria, one of the biggest stories of the tournament after upending tough opponents France and the Netherlands to win their group, play Turkey in the round of 16 on Tuesday.
After a hard-fought 1-0 loss to World Cup runners-up France, Austria reeled off a 3-1 victory over Poland and a 3-2 win over star-studded Netherlands to clinch a knockout berth for only the second time.
“To actually become the group winner in the end, that’s incredible,” Rangnick said after the victory over the Netherlands.
“When you beat the Netherlands and win the group, then you can’t be that bad,” said Borussia Dortmund midfielder Marcel Sabitzer, who scored the winning goal against the Dutch.
Rangnick inherited an Austrian team that had failed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup. They were playing uninspiring soccer and Austrians had fallen out of love with their team.
Rangnick, who has influenced coaches such as Juergen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel, is known as the “Godfather of gegenpressing,” the tactic of fierce counter-pressing to win the ball back fast, and preferably high up the pitch.
The Austria he now leads have a free-flowing, risk-taking style that has stood out from the more conservative group-stage approaches of sides such as England and Belgium and made them one of the most entertaining teams to watch.
“You see that even when we rotate, nothing is missed,” Sabitzer said. “Everybody knows what they have to do in their position when they’re on the pitch.”
While Austria thrashed Turkey 6-1 in a friendly in March, they are expecting a tougher challenge from their opponents — who advanced to the knockout round for the first time since 2008 — in Leipzig.
Turkey are also riding some momentum after Cenk Tosun came off the bench to strike deep into added time and give them a win over 10-man Czechia, a result that clinched their last 16 spot.
Turkey’s livewire attacker Baris Alper Yilmaz credited the thousands of raucous fans for the victory.
“They are our second family,” said Yilmaz. “We only hear their voices on the pitch, they motivate us a lot. We are going to take it step by step and hopefully we will win (the round of 16) game too.”
Vincenzo Montella’s team also conceded five goals in the opening round, with only Scotland (7), Croatia (6) and Poland (6) letting in more.
The winner of what is sure to be a rip-roaring affair on Tuesday will meet either Romania or the Netherlands in the quarter-finals.
(Reporting by Lori Ewing in Weimar, Germany; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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