Austria reached the knockout stages of the European Championship for the first time as a deserved win over Ukraine secured a last-16 tie against Italy.Austria beat Ukraine 1-0 to earn a Wembley meeting with Italy in the last of the European Championship.
Christoph Baumgartner’s close-range finish was enough to earn Austria victory in Bucharest. The 21-year-old suffered a head injury just three minutes after scoring, but was allowed to continue. Ukraine must wait to see if their tally of three points proves enough to reach the knockout stages.
AUSTRIA’S MILESTONE SATURDAY
Supervisor Andriy Shevchenko cut a disappointed figure on the touchline and after a noteworthy unbeaten qualifying effort to get to the competition, Ukraine should now hold on to check whether they secure one of four puts on proposal to the best third-place finishers at the competition.
Roman Yaremchuk streaked a shot across the objective late on yet Shevchenko’s side gathered no show off finish. They should be better should they edge through, while Austria should be more clinical against Italy given the plenty of promising circumstances they neglected to make the most of here.
Their Hoffenheim protective midfielder Florian Grillitsch intrigued all through, flaunting more contacts, passes, and block attempts than any other person in the group.
Foda will trust Baumgartner – whose style of play has been compared to previous Germany star Michael Ballack – can be incorporated when they meet Italy.
It vows to be a milestone event for Austrian football as the nation has seldom compromised the last phases of significant competitions.
While they got past bunches at the 1978 and 1982 World Cups, the two competitions highlighted a subsequent gathering stage, which means Saturday’s apparatus will be their first knockout match at a significant competition in 67 years, when they completed third at the 1954 World Cup.
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