Bitter European Championship defeat: Desperate Austria scores victory for France

Bitter European Championship defeat
Desperate Austria scores victory for France

17.06.2024, 22:57

France and Austria are engaged in a thrilling exchange of blows at the European Football Championship. A bitter own goal by Ralf Rangnick’s team puts the French on the road to victory. Superstar Kylian Mbappé misses a huge chance. The Austrians show how strong they are.

Kylian Mbappé got a bloody nose, Antoine Griezmann a cut on his head – and yet France still managed to defeat Ralf Rangnick’s Austrians in their tricky opening match. No focus on the European Championship! The co-favorites showed their will to work. After the 1-0 (1-0) win against the dark horses in Düsseldorf, the Équipe Tricolore still has a lot of room for improvement. An own goal by Gladbach’s Maximilian Wöber (38th minute) gave the French, who were accompanied by a political debate about the shift to the right in their home country, an important opening win in an extremely physical match. There were concerns, however, about Mbappé, who held his bleeding nose after a tackle shortly before the end and had to be substituted.

“We’ll have to wait and see what happens with Kylian. That’s difficult for us,” said coach Didier Deschamps with a grim expression. He was “satisfied” with the game itself, explained the 2018 World Cup coach: “Collectively, it was good. We just had to score the second goal.”

This means that the European champions of 1984 and 2000 are not under the great pressure they feared before Friday’s heated duel with the Netherlands. The preparations for the match were overshadowed by the debate about the new elections in France. On Sunday, Mbappé described the situation at home after the shift to the right in the European elections as an “important moment in the history” of France. There are things that are “far more important” than the match on Monday. This raised doubts as to whether the vice-world champions would take the start of the European Championship and the tournament as such seriously.

Leipziger almost scores the lead for Austria

But the political debate announced by captain Mbappé before the game did not take place and the favorites started with a lot of momentum. The top stars repeatedly showed off their immense speed and class. The bold Austrians, who were considered dark horses, found little relief at the beginning.

It was only during the first half that the ÖFB team found ways to pose a threat to France, but it wasn’t until the 37th minute that they had their first chance. And what a chance it was! Captain Marcel Sabitzer, who became Austria’s record player at European Championships with his eighth European Championship appearance, passed to Christoph Baumgartner. The Leipzig player was suddenly completely free in front of the rushing Mike Maignan and the French keeper from former champions AC Milan brilliantly cleared the ball for a corner, which referee Jesús Gil Manzano from Spain did not award for some unknown reason.

This blatant mistake had consequences. Shortly afterwards, Gladbach’s Wöber nodded a Mbappé cross into his own net in an extremely unfortunate manner. The Équipe Tricolore deserved to take the lead at half-time, but they kept the increasingly passionate Austrians in the game. This was also down to the French superstar himself. Ten minutes after the restart, the lightning-fast Mbappé first ran away from former Fortuna professional Kevin Danso at his old stomping ground and then also from Wöber, but he blasted the ball rather unassumingly wide of the goal.

Hard fight for France

The extremely unlucky Wöber was relieved shortly afterwards by Rangnick and replaced by Gernot Trauner from Feyenoord Rotterdam. With a total of three substitutions after an hour of play, the ÖFB team boss tried to make a statement once again. The injured David Alaba from Real Madrid – who was only on the bench at the European Championships – also brought no luck. “Of course I would help the team on the pitch. It hurts a little. But of course I also want to help the team in the role that I have played for years,” said Alaba on ARD.

Especially since the 65-year-old Rangnick, despite all his coaching experience, was breaking new ground in Düsseldorf. “It’s my first European Championship and my first time at a tournament with the national team. And there’s always something special about a start like this. That’s why it’s really something special,” said the long-time Bundesliga coach on MagentaTV. His team did bring the energy he had hoped for onto the field as the game went on. But Austria remained unlucky and the gap in performance within the team proved to be too great on Monday.

But it was a hard-fought victory for France. First Griezmann suffered a cut on his head after a check from Wöber, then Mbappé was hit. To make matters worse, the star striker was shown a yellow card after the referee refused to allow the French to make substitutions. Mbappé returned to the field and immediately fell to the ground.