Austrian national soccer team / European championships

Austria
Balance sheet

European Championship record scorer:	Alessandro Schöpf and Ivica Vastić (1 each)
European Championship record players:	Martin Harnik (5)
Rank:	32
Organizer:	2008 (together with Switzerland)
6 European Championship games 0 wins 2 draws 4 defeats 2: 7 goals
statistics
First European Championship game Austria 0: 1 Croatia Vienna ( AUT ); June 8, 2008 Austria Croatia
Biggest European Championship defeat Austria 0: 2 Hungary Bordeaux ( FRA ); June 14, 2016 Austria Hungary
successes
European Championship
Participation in the finals	2 ( first : 2008 )
Best results	Preliminary round ( 2008 )
Best results in the countries where the UEFA European Football Championships are held

(As of November 2019)

The article contains a detailed description of the Austrian national soccer team at European championships . The Austrian team was able to qualify for the first time in 2015, but took part once as an automatically qualified co-host and is 32nd (penultimate) place in the all-time best list.

Overview

Austria took part in all EM qualifications.

year	Host country	Participation until ...	Last opponent	Result	Trainer	Comments and special features
1960	France	not qualified				In the quarter-finals at France failed.
1964	Spain	not qualified				In the second round of Ireland failed could not even qualify for the final round.
1968	Italy	not qualified				In the qualification to Vice European Champion Soviet Union failed.
1972	Belgium	not qualified				In the qualification of defending champions Italy failed, which also failed to qualify.
1976	Yugoslavia	not qualified				Failed in the qualification to Wales , which could not qualify either.
1980	Italy	not qualified				In qualifying later in the European Vice Champion Belgium failed.
1984	France	not qualified				In the qualification of defending champion Germany failed.
1988	Germany	not qualified				In the qualification to Vice European champion Spain failed.
1992	Sweden	not qualified				In the qualification to Yugoslavia and the later European champion Denmark failed, who was allowed to drive to the EM instead of Yugoslavia.
1996	England	not qualified				Failed in the qualification to Portugal and Ireland , which could not qualify either.
2000	Netherlands and Belgium	not qualified				In the qualification of Spain and Israel failed, but which also could not qualify.
2004	Portugal	not qualified				In the qualification of Czech Republic and the Netherlands failed.
2008	Austria and Switzerland	Preliminary round	Croatia , Poland , Germany	-	Josef Hickersberger	Automatically qualifies as a co-host. Eliminated without a win.
2012	Poland and Ukraine	not qualified				In the qualification to Germany and Turkey failed, but also could not qualify.
2016	France	Preliminary round	Hungary , Portugal , Iceland	-	Switzerland Marcel Koller	Eliminated as last group
2021	Europe	qualified				Austria did not apply to host games. Qualified early as second in the group . In the finals, the Austrians face the Netherlands, Ukraine and a play-off winner.

The tournaments

EM 1960

The Austrians also wanted to take part in the first European football championship in 1960, which was still held as the “European Cup of Nations”. To do this, they had to play against Norway in the round of 16 . On May 20, 1959, trained by Karl Decker , they played their first European Championship qualifier in Oslo and won 1-0 with a goal from Erich Hof . In the second leg four months later in Vienna they won 5-2, with Hof scoring two more goals, including the 1-0 in the third minute. Austria then failed in the quarter - finals against third place in the World Cup, France , who were then allowed to host the finals and came fourth.

EM 1964

Four years later, more teams than 1960 wanted to participate, so the round of 16 was preceded by a preliminary round . Austria received a bye and was thus directly qualified for the round of 16. There they met Ireland and after a goalless draw at home they lost 3-2 in Dublin . After losing two more games, Karl Decker's tenure ended. Ireland then failed in the quarter-finals to Spain , which was then allowed to host the finals and became European champions.

EM 1968

For the European Football Championship in 1968, group games were scheduled for the first time in qualifying . Austria had to compete against vice European champions Soviet Union , Greece and Finland . Austria went into the qualification under team boss Eduard Frühwirth , but his tenure ended after the first qualifying game, a goalless draw in Finland and two defeats in friendly games. But under his successors Erwin Alge and Hans Pesser only the home games against Finland and the USSR could be won, but they lost in Greece and the Soviet Union. So they had no chance to qualify even before the last home game against Greece. This game was then canceled due to spectator riots in the 86th minute when the score was 1: 1. The result was canceled by UEFA, but no longer played a role in the outcome of the qualification. Group winners Soviet Union, who only lost the game in Austria but won all the others, then also reached the finals and came fourth there. Alge and Pesser initially remained in office, but shortly after the World Cup qualification began in 1970 , Leopold Šťastný took over the office.

European Championship 1972

Austria was also unable to qualify for the 1972 European Championship finals . In a group with defending champions and vice world champions Italy , Ireland and Sweden they lost the first two games (1: 2 against Italy and 0: 1 in Sweden). This was followed by three wins and a 2-2 win in Italy, but since Italy did not lose a game, Austria only finished second. Group winners Italy then surprisingly failed in the quarter-finals to Belgium , which was then allowed to host the final and finished third.

EM 1976

In 1976 the final round was held for the last time with four teams. The Austrians met in the group stage of qualifying for Wales , Hungary and Luxembourg . Austria started with a 2-1 win against Wales and a 2-1 win in Luxembourg, then only achieved a 0-0 home game against Hungary and lost the second leg in Hungary. This also ended the term of office of Leopold Šťastný as team boss. First, Branko Elsner trained the team. After a 6-2 win against Luxembourg, they lost 0-1 in Wales and thus missed group victory. This also ended Elsner's tenure as team boss. His successor Helmut Senekowitsch led Austria to the World Cup in Argentina , but resigned after the miracle of Cordoba . Group winners Wales failed in the quarter-finals to Yugoslavia , which was then allowed to host the finals, but only finished fourth despite home advantage.

EM 1980

In qualifying for the European Championship in Italy, which was held for the first time with eight teams, the Austrians, now trained by Karl Stotz , faced Belgium , Norway , Portugal and Scotland . Austria lost the qualification with a 1-1 draw on the penultimate matchday in Scotland and thus had one point less than group winners Belgium, who won 3-1 in Scotland on the last matchday. Belgium went to the European Championship and reached the final, but lost it to Germany . Stotz remained in office and with him succeeded in qualifying for the 1982 World Cup. However, he was then booted out by the ÖFB President Karl Sekanina .

EM 1984

In qualifying four years later, Austria met defending champions and runner-up world champions Germany, Northern Ireland , Turkey and Albania . The Austrians, now trained by Erich Hof , the scorer of the first European Championship qualifying goal, achieved a 0-0 home game against Germany after winning the other three home games and won in Albania, but lost the other away games. As a result, in the end they had two points less than the Germans and Northern Irish tied for points, who had won 1-0 twice against Germany, but had the worse goal difference. The Germans drove to the European Championship, but failed for the first time in a major tournament in the group stage. Hof initially remained in office, but after the first games in qualifying for the 1986 World Cup , Branko Elsner took over the office of team manager again.

EM 1988

Opponents in the qualification for the European Championship in 1988 were vice European champions Spain , Romania and again Albania. Austria could only win both games against the Albanians, this was only enough for third place, which ended Branko Elsner's second term. His successor was Josef Hickersberger . Spain went to the EM as group winners, but were eliminated in the preliminary round.

EM 1992

In qualifying for the European Championship in 1992 , Austria met Denmark , Northern Ireland, Yugoslavia and the Faroe Islands , all of which participated for the first time. In the first qualifying game , Austria met the Faroe Islands, for whom this was the first competitive game ever, and lost sensationally with 0: 1. Josef Hickersberger resigned as team boss after the game. It was the only victory for the Faroe Islands, but not the only defeat for the Austrians. Because even under Hickersberger's successor Alfred Riedl , the performance did not improve, so that Dietmar Constantini trained the team on an interim basis for the last two games . They could only win the second leg against the Faroe Islands. In addition to a goalless draw against Northern Ireland, this was the only point win. With that they were second to last in the group, tied with the Faroese. Yugoslavia, which as group winners actually qualified for the European Championship finals, was excluded shortly before the start of the finals due to UN sanctions as a result of the Yugoslav wars and Denmark was re-nominated. Most of the Danish players had already started their vacation after the end of the season of the national leagues and arrived without much preparation. Nevertheless, the Danes managed the biggest surprise to date and won the title in the final against world champions and record European champions Germany.

EM 1996

In addition to Austria, England, Portugal and the Netherlands also applied to host the 1996 tournament. Since the European Championship was to be held for the first time with 16 teams and only England offered the opportunity to host the tournament in this form, the English were awarded the contract. Austria therefore had to try the athletic qualification, which on the one hand seemed easier because the field had doubled, on the other hand, there were more applicants after the upheavals in the Eastern Bloc .

In a group with Portugal , Northern Ireland , Ireland , Latvia and Liechtenstein , however, Herbert Prohaska only took fourth place. Austria scored 29 goals like group winners Portugal, but defeats in Latvia (2: 3) and Northern Ireland (3: 5) lost second place. Ireland and Northern Ireland had one point more in the end, but the Irish then failed in the playoff game of the two worst runners-up in the group against the Netherlands .

EM 2000

Austria had again applied to host the EM 2000, as had Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands in a joint application. The EM was then awarded to Belgium and the Netherlands. Austria therefore had to try again to qualify in sports. In a group with Spain , Israel , Cyprus and San Marino , however, only third place was tied with Israel because the Israelis had won the direct comparison. But they also had the better goal difference as Austria lost 9-0 in Spain, among other things . After this highest away defeat in the history of Austria's international match, team boss Herbert Prohaska resigned, but his successor Otto Barić was unable to turn fate. Group winners Spain, who scored the most goals of all teams with 42 goals, qualified for the European Championship, Israel failed in the group runners-up playoffs to Denmark. However, Spain failed in the preliminary round at the EM, Denmark in the quarter-finals.

EM 2004

After two unsuccessful attempts to become the sole host, Austria had now applied to host the 2004 European Championship together with Hungary, but was defeated by the Portuguese, as were the interested Spaniards. Therefore Austria had to try again in sport. In the qualification, the Austrians, who have now been trained by Hans Krankl , the hero of Cordoba, faced the Czech Republic , the Netherlands , Moldova and Belarus . Austria only won both games against Belarus and the home game against Moldau, all other games were lost, so that only third place jumped out. The Czechs were directly qualified as group winners, the Dutch through the playoffs of the group runners-up against the Scots. Krankl initially stayed in office, but after a mixed start to qualifying for the 2006 World Cup , he resigned in September 2005 when he was told that his contract would not be extended.

EM 2008

Starting lineups in the first European Championship game of the Austrians

After the unsuccessful attempts to get the approval for the sole European Championship organization and together with Hungary, Austria tried it together with Switzerland and finally succeeded: on December 12, 2002 they were awarded the contract to host the 2008 European Championship Neither of them had to qualify for the EM, which meant that Austria was allowed to start for the first time. Switzerland had already qualified in 1996 and 2004. Team boss Josef Hickersberger , who was reappointed after missing the World Cup qualification in 2006, was able to use the time up to the finals for test matches, in which only five wins against international "heavyweights" such as Liechtenstein , Malta and Trinidad and Tobago , with eight draws and 11 defeats .

At the finals, Austria, Switzerland , defending champions Greece and the Netherlands were named as the team with the best UEFA coefficient as group heads and Austria was specifically assigned to the group that played in Vienna . Were added Lost Germany , Croatia and Poland , which had first qualified. In the opening game against Croatia, the Austrians had to accept a penalty after just three minutes, which Luka Modrić converted to 1-0 for Croatia. It stayed that way until the end. In the game against Poland they kept the goal clean for 30 minutes, but then had to accept a goal that Ivica Vastić was only able to compensate with a penalty in the third minute of stoppage time . He became the oldest goalscorer in the history of the European Championship finals. This gave Austria the chance to qualify for the quarter-finals by beating Germany in their last game, provided that Poland did not win against the Croatians who had already qualified. The Croatians did them a favor, although they spared some regular players for the quarter-finals, and won 1-0 against Poland. Austria lost 1-0 through a goal by Michael Ballack , which was then voted Goal of the Year in Germany , and was eliminated, as was co-hosts Switzerland. With the end, the second term of office of Josef Hickersberger , who was referred to the stands during the game as well as his German colleague Joachim Löw . His successor Karel Brückner , previously coach of the Czechs, did not stay in office for long. Croatia failed in a dramatic quarter-final on penalties against Turkey , Germany reached the final for the sixth time, but lost to Spain , which won another title after 44 years.

EM 2012

Scene from the qualifying game against Germany on June 3, 2011

In qualifying for the Euro 2012 , Austria, which was now coached by Didi Constantini , met Germany again, as did Belgium, Azerbaijan , Kazakhstan and Turkey . Austria started the qualification well with two wins, but lost five games after a 4: 4 against Belgium. Constantini's term of office ended with the subsequent goalless draw against Turkey. Another goalless draw in Kazakhstan and the 4: 1 in Azerbaijan under interim coach Willibald Ruttensteiner were not enough to reach second place. Germany became group winners with 10 wins in 10 games, the second-placed Turks gambled away the qualification in the playoff home game of the group runners-up with 0: 3 against Croatia, so that the 0: 0 in the second leg did not help.

EM 2016

For the first time, 24 teams took part in the European Championship. For the draw for the qualification groups , which took place on February 23, 2014, the Austrians were placed in pot 3. The Austrians were drawn into Group G. From the other pots the following were drawn: Sweden , Russia , Montenegro , Liechtenstein and Moldova .

The first two in the group qualified directly for the European Championship finals. had the third-placed team finished third in the group, they would also have qualified directly. The remaining third in the group played four other participants in the playoffs.

After missing the qualification for the EM 2012, the Swiss Marcel Koller took over the office of team manager. Koller now relies more on Austrians who played in foreign leagues and thus also in European club competitions, which gives them more international experience, as Austrian clubs usually drop out early in European competitions (in the 2013/14 season, FK Austria Vienna for the first time since 2005 an Austrian club entered the group stage of the UEFA Champions League ). This was particularly noticeable in the first game in qualifying for the 2014 World Cup on September 11, 2012 when only legionnaires were in the starting line-up. Although the qualification for the World Cup was not yet successful, the games against feared opponents "Faroe Islands" were now clearly won.

This upward trend continued in qualifying for the Euro 2016. The Austrians only started with a draw against Sweden, but then won four games and were in first place after half of the games with the most goals and the fewest goals conceded. With two further wins, including a 4-1 in Sweden, Austria qualified early and thus for the first time sporty for the European Championship finals. Since the last two games were also won, Austria was one of the only four teams that did not lose a game. For Austria it was the first European Championship qualification that was survived without defeat. Thanks to the good qualification results , Austria achieved a top 10 position in the FIFA world rankings in November 2015 for the first time with 10th place.

For the group draw on December 12, 2015, Austria was assigned to Pot 2 due to the UEFA coefficient and could therefore have met hosts France, defending champions Spain or world champions Germany in the group stage, but not the neighbors Italy and Switzerland, who are also in Pot 2 were. Ultimately, they were drawn into the group with Portugal. Other opponents were Iceland and Hungary, against which the opening game was lost 2-0. After a 0-0 win against superior Portuguese, in which Cristiano Ronaldo shot a penalty at the "Stangel", they lost 2-1 against Iceland with a goal in stoppage time when they pressed for the winning goal they needed to advance Aleksandar Dragović missed a penalty. As the bottom of the group, the Austrians were eliminated again.

EM 2021

Austria did not apply to host games for the first pan-European European Championship finals. In the qualifying , had to take part in the final round, the organizers of games, it had the Austrians with Poland, Slovenia, Northern Macedonia to do, Israel and Latvia. After missing qualification for the 2018 World Cup, Franco Foda was the first German to take over the post of ÖFB team boss in Austria. The Austrians lost the first two games, first 0: 1 at home against Poland and then 2: 4 against the Israelis, trained by the Austrian record international player Andreas Herzog . But then they were able to win three games (1-0 against Slovenia, 4-1 in North Macedonia and 6-0 against Latvia). The second half of the qualification began with a goalless draw in Poland, which was followed by three wins, so that on the penultimate matchday the direct qualification as second in the group was certain. They were able to cope with a 0-1 defeat in the last game against the previously pointless Latvians, but three players had their first appearance in the senior national team.

At the draw on November 30, 2019, the Austrians were drawn into the group with the Netherlands and Ukraine. In addition, a team was drawn that still has to qualify via the playoffs in March 2020.

Player with the most appearances in European championships

Games	player	Participation
5	Martin Harnik	2008 (3), 2016 (2)
4th	Christian Fuchs	2008 (1), 2016 (3)
	Sebastian Prödl	2008 (2), 2016 (2)
3	14 players

As of June 22, 2016

Player with the most goals at European championships

Gates	player	Year (goals)
1	Alessandro Schöpf	2016 (1)
	Ivica Vastić	2008 (1)

As of June 22, 2016

Players banned from European championships

In 2008 Sebastian Prödl received the second yellow card in the second group match and was suspended for the last group match against Germany, in which both coaches were sent to the stands.
In 2016, Aleksandar Dragović received a yellow-red card in the first group match and was suspended for the second group match against Portugal.

Share of players playing abroad in the EM squad

Legionnaires made up a large contingent in the first EM squad, in the second there is only one player who plays in Austria: goalkeeper Robert Almer .

Year (games)	Number (countries)	Players (stakes)
2008 (3)	10 (2 in Germany, 1 in England, 2 in Greece, 2 in Italy, 1 in Norway, 1 in Portugal, 1 in Russia)	Martin Harnik (3), Ramazan Özcan (0); Emanuel Pogatetz (3); Andreas Ivanschitz (3), Jürgen Macho (3); György Garics (2), Alexander Manninger (0); Roman Kienast (3); Roland Linz (2); Martin Stranzl (3)
2016 (3)	22 (15 in Germany, 4 in England, 2 in Switzerland, 1 in Ukraine)	David Alaba (3), Julian Baumgartlinger (3) György Garics, Martin Harnik (2), Martin Hinteregger (3), Lukas Hinterseer (1), Stefan Ilsanker (2), Zlatko Junuzović (1), Florian Klein (3), Heinz Lindner , Rubin Okotie (1), Ramazan Özcan, Marcel Sabitzer (3), Alessandro Schöpf (3), Markus Suttner ; Marko Arnautović (3), Christian Fuchs (3), Sebastian Prödl (2), Kevin Wimmer (1); Marc Janko (2), Jakob Jantscher (1); Aleksandar Dragović (2) (C)

As of June 22, 2016

particularities

Oldest European Championship goalscorer: Ivica Vastić (Austria), born on September 29, 1969, in the match between Austria and Poland at the European Championship 2008 at the age of 38 years and 257 days

Games

Vienna (3)

Bucharest (2)

Venues (red = negative balance, yellow = balanced balance)

The Austrians have played six European Championship games so far, four of which have been lost and two have ended in a draw. No game had to be extended. The Austrians never took part in the first or opening game of the European Championship, never played against the hosts or defending champions, but once against the eventual European champions.

None of the previous games meant the biggest defeat against these countries.

No.	date	Result	opponent		venue	occasion	Remarks
All EM games
1	06/08/2008	0: 1	Croatia Croatia	H	Vienna	Preliminary round	First game in a home tournament
2	06/12/2008	1: 1	Poland Poland	H	Vienna	Preliminary round
3	06/16/2008	0: 1	Germany Germany	H	Vienna	Preliminary round	Last international game under Josef Hickersberger 250th defeat in an international game Austria is eliminated early as third in the group
4th	06/14/2016	0: 2	Hungary Hungary	*	Bordeaux ( FRA )	Preliminary round
5	06/18/2016	0-0	Portugal Portugal	*	Paris ( FRA )	Preliminary round
6th	06/22/2016	1: 2	Iceland Iceland	*	Saint-Denis ( FRA )	Preliminary round
	06/13/2021		Playoff winner D / A	A / *	Bucharest ( ROU )	Preliminary round
	06/17/2021		Netherlands Netherlands	A.	Amsterdam ( NLD )	Preliminary round
	June 21, 2021		Ukraine Ukraine	*	Bucharest ( ROU )	Preliminary round