Poland 1-3 Austria: Rangnick's men break through in Berlin

A Christoph Baumgartner strike and a Marko Arnautović penalty secured a first UEFA EURO 2024 Group D win for Austria, as the return of the talismanic Robert Lewandowski failed to bring Poland good fortune.

Match in brief: Austria come on strong

Gernot Trauner (in red) heads Austria's openerAFP via Getty Images

With Lewandowski starting on the bench, Austria were rewarded for a positive start inside ten minutes. One of two centre-backs brought into the starting line-up for this game, Gernot Trauner headed Phillipp Mwene's cross past Wojciech Szczęsny at his near post, and with Austria composed, Poland had to scrap for a foothold.

Nicola Zalewski missed the target from a decent position on 18 minutes, but Poland found their range on the half-hour, Krzysztof Piątek first to a loose ball in the area after Jan Bednarek's blast was blocked.

Marcel Sabitzer had a couple of decent efforts before the break, and Patrick Pentz saved from a neatly-struck Piotr Zieliński free-kick. However, with both sides needing a win, something had to give, Lewandowski introduced on the hour as both coaches made extensive second-half reshuffles.

Austria, though, stole the Polish talisman's thunder, Baumgartner wrong-footing Szczęsny with a hit from the edge of the box on 67 minutes. Patrick Wimmer had a chance to finish it but was denied by Szczęsny on 75 minutes, yet the keeper then brought down Sabitzer when through on goal, Arnautović stepping up to convert the resulting penalty.

Vivo Player of the Match: Christoph Baumgartner (Austria)

Austria's No19 scored a good goal with an excellent finish. Baumgartner offered good pressing and movement; he was good with the ball and creative.
UEFA Technical Observer panel

Piotr Koźmiński, Poland reporter

After their opening defeat against the Netherlands, Poland still had some hope. Their style of play was promising, but this second fixture has pretty much killed any optimism as far as EURO 2024 is concerned. Mistakes in defence were costly and they were ultimately well beaten.

James Thorogood, Austria reporter

In the first instalment of a EURO-defining double-header in Berlin, Austria delivered on their promise of major improvements following the France loss, even if they did not hit the peak of their powers. Ralf Rangnick and his charges have not disguised their intention of reaching the knockout stage for a second successive EURO. Now they stand in good stead ahead of a big match against the Netherlands.

Krzysztof Piątek makes it 1-1AFP via Getty Images

Reaction

Ralf Rangnick, Austria coach: "The first 20 minutes were maybe perfect for us. We should have led by more than 1-0, and then we kind of lost our way and started losing the ball. That's why we had to make a few changes in the second half, and once we did we took full control. Did Baumgartner break my glasses when he ran over to celebrate with me? No, they are OK and I have two spare pairs anyway."

Marko Arnautović, Austria forward: "We're all very happy because we put a lot into this game. We deserved to win. Our performance against France wasn't bad, but today we wanted to be more direct going forward and wanted to go beyond our limits. When that happens we're a really good team and we proved that today."

Marcel Sabitzer, Austria midfielder: "It's a good win, an important win, a massive win. It was intense, so I'm very tired, but very happy. This was closer to how we can play. Especially without the ball, we were very intense on the counter. When get close to our highest peak, we're a very good team. If you ask Poland, I don't think they'll want to play us again."

Christoph Baumgartner, Austria midfielder: "Everybody is extremely happy. There was a lot of pressure on us and we couldn't really have an afternoon nap yesterday because we were so stressed. We are really relieved but we know that this is only the start and there are big challenges ahead of us."

Michał Probierz, Poland coach: "The first 15 minutes did not go to plan. We didn't deal very well with Austria's aggressive play and kept losing the ball. We didn't have enough quality in the end. We all win and lose together. We can maybe play more aggressively against France and it is an opportunity to grow."

Przemysław Frankowski, Poland midfielder: "We were well prepared for Austria on paper, but paper and reality are sometimes very different. You can still take positives, like experience and so on, from these tournaments, as we have a lot of young players. But as for today, I don't even want to look for positives as we just lost an important game."

Robert Lewandowski (right) comes on for PolandGetty Images

Key stats

• Austria picked up their first ever win over Poland in a competitive international (P7 W1 D2 L4), and their first in six meetings overall (D2 L3) since a 4-3 friendly win in May 1994.
• Lewandowski has matched goalkeeper Szczęsny in becoming the second Pole to feature at four EURO final tournaments.
• Having also scored at EURO 2020, Baumgartner and Arnautović's both struck their second EURO finals goals; two apiece are enough to make them Austria's all-time EURO top scorers.
• Aged 35 years and 73 days, Arnautovic becomes Austria's second-oldest major tournament goalscorer (World Cup/EURO), after Ivica Vastic who also notched a penalty against Poland at EURO 2008 (38y 257d).
• Kamil Grosicki (36 years, 13 days) and Lewandowski (35 years, 305 days) became Poland's oldest appearance makers at a major tournament (World Cup/EURO), surpassing Jacek Bąk (35 y 80d at EURO 2008).
• Trauner's only previous goal for Austria was scored in a friendly win against Luxembourg in 2020. He is the eighth Austrian to find the net at a EURO.
• Austria have lost just two of their last 18 matches in all competitions (W13 D3), with those defeats coming against the top two ranked UEFA nations in FIFA's rankings (Belgium, 2-3 in October 2023, and France, 0-1 at this EURO).

Line-ups

Poland: Szczęsny; Bednarek, Dawidowicz, Kiwior; Frankowski, Piotrowski (Moder 46), Slisz (Grosicki 75), Zalewski; Zieliński (Urbański 87); Buksa (Lewandowski 60), Piątek (Świderski 60)

Austria: Pentz; Posch, Trauner (Danso 59), Lienhart, Mwene (Prass 63); Seiwald, Grillitsch (Wimmer 46); Baumgartner (Schmidt 81), Laimer Sabitzer; Arnautović (Gregoritsch 81)