Austria's Victory Over Poland 3-1, Becomes Capital Against The Netherlands

Austrian vs Poland duel, exciting and tense (photo: eufa.com)

JAKARATA- Austria won an important victory over Poland with a score of 3-1 in the 2024 EURO Group D match. This victory revived the Austrian campaign and gave them great hope to advance to the next round. Especially if they were able to win over the Netherlands in the last group.

Christoph Baumgartner and Marko Arnautovimen became heroes for Austria with each scoring. Baumgartner, who was named the Best Player (Man of the Match), expressed his joy at the extraordinary support from fans.

"We started well, created a lot of pressure but then we let the momentum disappear. In the second half we knew we had to perform and one of the things we knew how to do was respond in a situation like that that's why we got positive results," Baumgartner said, quoted from the uefa.com page.

"The fans are amazing. I've played in Bundesliga games here, but it's a different level tonight. Austrian fans are amazing, we saw videos before the game, how they are so excited, walking through the city. I hope they will continue like this. We will continue to fight. We will give everything and I hope we can have more games," he said.

Arnautovi said the same. "This is a very important win for us, we are all very happy because we invested a lot of effort in this match. We deserved to win in the end. Our performance against France is not bad, but today we want to go straight forward and want to go beyond our limits. When that happens, we are a very good team and prove it today," said Arnautovi

On the Polish side, there is a clear sense of frustration. Piotr Zieliwasski, a Polish midfielder, admitted his team's mistakes. "We "sleeped" for the first 15 minutes. We walked, not ran. We didn't disturb our opponents. Because of that, we conceded goals and it woke us up. We started taking more control and at the start of the second half we looked good, but then everything collapsed. We failed," he said.

Polish striker, Krzysztof Pimartek, also expressed his disappointment. "It's hard to say right after the game what really happened. We lost a game that we didn't want to lose. We had good and bad moments, but in the end Austria got all three points. Austria played very well with the ball, they surprised us early with their aggression and pressure. Then we played better, and also started the second half better, but that wasn't enough," Piatek said.

Austrian coach Ralf Rangnick was satisfied with his team's performance despite admitting there was a decline in performance in the first half. "The first 20 minutes might be perfect for us. We were supposed to lead more than 1-0, and then we lost our way and started to lose the ball. That's why we had to make some changes in the second half, and once we did, we took full control," Rangnick said.

Poland coach Micha Total Probierz admits the challenges his team faces. "The first 15 minutes didn't go as planned. We didn't handle Austria's aggressive game well and kept losing the ball. We didn't have enough quality in the end. We all won and lost together. We might be able to play more aggressively against France and this is an opportunity to grow," said Probierz.

Against The Netherlands

Austria are now preparing for their final match in the group stage against the Netherlands. Marcel Sabitzer, Austrian midfielder, spoke about their preparations.

"We want to win [in the group's last match against the Netherlands]. We played against strong opponents, we know that. They like to play from behind so we need to press, press high, press intensely. If we do that and make it happen on the pitch, we are very strong and I'm sure we can do it," said Sabitzer.

With this victory, Austria showed that they are a team to take into account in this tournament. Support from fans and solid performance from the players gave them a big boost to face the next challenge.