Austrian coach confident of beating the Netherlands, Polish coach tells bitter truth about Lewandowski

Austria have taken their first three points at EURO 2024, beating Poland 3-1. Goals from Christoph Baumgartner, Gernot Trauner and Marko Arnautovic helped Ralf Rangnick's side open their account and temporarily rise to second place in the group.

3 points against Poland also helps Austria still have a chance to continue to the round of 16, while Poland has been eliminated from the game when it is certain to be at the bottom of the group.

Coach Rangnick was excited by Austria's impressive performance, as his students quickly recovered from the loss to France on the opening day. However, there were still things that made the former Manchester United coach unhappy.

The Austrian team won an important match.

"Austria played perfectly in the first 20 minutes. We should have been more than a goal ahead at that time. Then Austria started to lose control, passing a lot of wrong passes. That's why we had to change in the second half and once again Austria controlled the game completely.

Perhaps Austria's problem in the first half was psychological. We thought we could easily score another goal after playing so well in the first 20 minutes, or the players were under pressure. Whatever you say, the Austrian players played worse than their ability in the first half," Mr. Rangnick assessed.

The German strategist believes that Austria can beat the Netherlands in the final match, when the two teams clash for a ticket to the next round. However, according to coach Rangnick, the important thing is that Austria focus on improving their playing style, rather than just looking at the opponent.

"Are we under pressure in the final match against the Netherlands? The Austrian team needs at least 1 point, but let's see what happens. Austria is capable of beating the Netherlands and winning the top spot in Group D, but I'm only interested in the team's performance today," coach Rangnick replied frankly.

On the opposite side, coach Michal Probierz said: "The Austrian team played defensive counter-attacks after we conceded the second goal. That's how it is. Poland had to attack and take risks. Poland also had difficulties when many important players were injured. We could not build a truly cohesive team."

After missing the opening game against the Netherlands, striker Robert Lewandowski returned, but he was on the bench and only came on in the 60th minute to replace Adam Buksa. At that time, Poland were tied 1-1 with Austria, so coach Probierz wanted to bring on the Barcelona striker to increase the pressure.

However, not only was Lewandowski helpless in scoring, but Poland also conceded two more goals and lost in the end.

"Lewandowski actually fully recovered before the match against Austria. He also returned to training with his teammates. However, we know this match will be very tense and high intensity. After talking with the medical team, we agreed not to let Lewandowski play from the start," coach Probierz shared about Lewandowski's condition.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/hlv-ao-tu-tin-thang-ha-lan-hlv-ba-lan-noi-su-that-cay-dang-ve-lewandowski-18524062204110042.htm