Tournament in Qatar without Austria: Bale’s dream goals bury Alaba’s World Cup dream

Tournament in Qatar without Austria
Bale’s dream goals bury Alaba’s World Cup dream

Straight from the golf course to the World Cup? Garteth Bale, who has recently been sorted out, shoots his real club colleague David Alaba and Austria out of the World Cup play-offs with Wales. In the all-or-nothing games, Sweden must go into extra time to strike late against the Czech Republic.

For Austria and the German coach Franco Foda, the dream of the World Cup in Cardiff was shattered. In Wales, the ÖFB selection lost 1: 2 (0: 1). The Welsh are now set to play a decider against Ukraine or Scotland in the summer, a play-off semi-final postponed amid Russia’s war of aggression. It is scheduled to take place in June.

In Porto Otavio (15th), Diogo Jota (42nd) and Matheus Nunes (90th + 4th) scored for the hosts, veteran star Burak Yilmaz (65th) shortened – but then missed a penalty kick in the 85th minute. For Germany’s former U21 coach Kuntz it was the first defeat with the Turks in the fifth game, and their dream of participating in the World Cup for the first time since 2002 was shattered.

Dream goals by Gareth Bale

Austria failed mainly because of Gareth Bale: The exceptional Welsh player, only second choice at Real Madrid, scored twice (25th/51st), his direct free kick to make it 1-0 was particularly worth seeing. Bayern Munich’s Marcel Sabitzer (64th) only managed to connect. Wales then had the goal to make it 3-1 on their feet several times.

Sweden also remains in the race for a World Cup ticket, beating the Czech Republic 1-0 (0-0) after extra time after a goal by ex-Mainzer Robin Quaison in Stockholm and is now traveling to Poland for the playoff final. The team led by world footballer Robert Lewandowski had progressed without a fight because FIFA had suspended the Russian selection because of the aggressive war against Ukraine.

source site-33