Austria’s national soccer team took off with a mini-delegation yesterday morning from Vienna Airport in the direction of Scotland. At today’s World Cup qualification kick-off in Glasgow’s Hampden Park (8.45 p.m., ORF one), in addition to the players, coaches and supervisors from the ÖFB side, only President Leo Windtner, General Secretary Thomas Hollerer and Managing Director Bernhard Neuhold will be seated in the stands.
The ÖFB delegation has a special permit and is therefore not subject to the ten-day quarantine obligation that every other Austrian would currently have to comply with after entering Scotland. In the luggage were also numerous questions that ÖFB team boss Franco Foda kept to himself for the time being. “I won’t decide on one or two places in the starting XI until today.”
- Back three or four? Foda likes to emphasize the flexibility in the home game. That he will change his preferred 4-2-3-1 today is not to be expected, especially since Martin Hinteregger and Stefan Posch are also missing two starting line-up candidates for central defense.
- The goalkeeper question: If Daniel Bachmann gets a chance after his top performances at English second division Watford, it will be now. Pavao Pervan did not make any major mistakes during his assignments in the autumn, which is why he has a high standing at Foda. The fact that Pervan, as Wolfsburg substitute keeper, will not get any opportunities until the EURO, with the exception of the international matches, also represents a great risk for Foda.
- The striker question: The easiest to answer is probably who will take Marko Arnautovic’s place in the storm. Sasa Kalajdzic is in top form at VfB Stuttgart and could become the big winner in the next three games.
Good away record
Most recently, Austria’s national team played very successfully away from home with four wins in a row. However, Foda does not want to be blinded by this. He tries to keep the pressure on the team as low as possible before the difficult opening match. After all, Austria had recently started with two defeats in the European Championship qualification and still managed the big goal in the end.
Foda: “At that time there was a lot of criticism, but we stayed calm and then made it.” As in the European Championship qualification, from today only winning the group is enough for a fixed qualification. Thanks to the successes in the Nations League, participation in the play-off, in which the remaining World Cup tickets will be played, is as good as fixed.
Article by
Harald Bartl
Deputy Head of Sports Department
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