Euro 2024 Preview: Austria -v- Türkiye - Austria lean into Leipzig Red Bull roots ahead Türkiye last 16 tie

Christoph Baumgartner of Austria celebrates scoring his team's second goal with teammate Patrick Wimmer during the UEFA EURO 2024 group stage match between Poland and Austria at Olympiastadion on June 21, 2024 in Berlin

Christoph Baumgartner of Austria celebrates scoring his team's second goal with teammate Patrick Wimmer during the UEFA EURO 2024 group stage match between Poland and Austria at Olympiastadion on June 21, 2024 in Berlin Credit: (Photo by Joosep Martinson - UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)

Macdara Ferris reports from Leipzig

AUSTRIA

Das Team leaned into their Leipzig Red Bull roots on the eve of their last 16 tie with Türkiye by putting up the two RB Leipzig players from their squad, Nicolas Seiwald and Christoph Baumgartner, for the pre-match press conference.

Sitting alongside Austrian boss and former RB Leipzig manager Ralf Rangnick, Baumgartner said he was looking forward to taking on Türkiye in familiar surroundings and is hoping that the ‘neutral’ fans from Leipzig will throw their support behind the Austrians.

“We have an amazing pitch, selected as the best surface in the Bundesliga,” said Baumgartner at the press event when speaking about playing on his home turf -  a pitch that picked up the league award this week for best surface in the last season. 

“We know many faces here. I hope the neutral fans will be on our side as they will have a better relationship with us than the Turkish team. It doesn’t matter where you play though, you just have to win.”

Former RB Leipzig player Konrad Laimer also spoke about his return to the Red Bull Arena. "It feels great to return to a place where I played for six years,” said the Borussia Monchengladbach player speaking to euro2024.com. 

"I feel I know the stadium inside out. I played so many games there in the past. We won against Tottenham in the Champions League round of 16; Sabi [Austrian skipper Marcel Sabitzer] scored two goals. It was the last game before [Covid] so it's engraved in my memory."

His manager Ralf Rangnick said it was somewhat of a surprise for Austria to be playing here after winning their group. “I believe if someone had forecasted before the group stage that we would get into the last 16 and be playing in Leipzig, I would say they were very optimistic but here we are.”

Austria beat Türkiye 6-1 in a March friendly but haven’t beaten the Turks for 35 years in a competitive game. Rangnick wasn’t reading too much into either of those stats.



“The fact is Austria has not won versus Turkey in the last 35 years in a competitive game (a draw and five defeats). That serves to fill newspapers. They will be exciting articles to be read but will have nothing to do with the result.

“We know the Turkish squad is very strong. None of us will believe as we won this friendly in the past, that we are in the advantage. 

“We will focus on our way of play. Turkey is a team who will include emotion and we will need to show heart and be strong”

Austria lost their opening EURO 2024 game 1-0 to France before beating Poland 3-1 in Berlin.  Back in the Olympiastadion in the German capital for the final group game, they defeated the Dutch 3-2 to top the group.

TÜRKIYE



Türkiye were runners up in Group F after beginning the tournament with an impressive 3-1 win against Georgia before losing 3-0 against group winners Portugal. In their combustible final group game against Czechia they won 2-1, thanks to a 94th-minute Cenk Tosun goal.

Vincenzo Montella's Turkish side were thumped 6-1 by Austria in a friendly earlier this year but goalkeeper Mert Günok wasn’t reading too much into that match.

"I don't think we should have conceded six goals in that game,” said Günok speaking to euro2024.com. “But our coach loves experimenting in friendlies – not just with new players, but also with tactical schemes.

"We can safely say that we were unable to execute the tactical plans we were trying in that game. And the goals that we conceded were incredibly untimely.

"It doesn't matter to us if our opponents are Austria or another country, to be honest. It wouldn't be right to see this as an opportunity for revenge.

"Excessive ambition could backfire on us. We should keep both feet on the ground and do everything we can to win the game."

Referee: Artur Soares Dias (Portugal)

MATCH STATS

The winner of the tie will play either Romania or the Netherlands in the quarter-final in Berlin next Saturday.

Austria haven’t defeated Turkey in their last six competitive games (a draw and five defeats) going back to a 3-0 World Cup qualifier loss in 1989. Their most recent competitive win was a 3-2 home victory in 1988.

Austria have played three previous matches in Leipzig, all World Cup qualifiers against East Germany. They had a 1-0 defeat in the 1966 preliminaries and 1-1 draws ahead of the 1978 and 1990 tournaments.  

Türkiye have been knocked out in the group stage of the Euros in their last two appearances but memorably made it to the semi-finals in 2008, when they lost 3-2 to Germany.

Austria

Injured: David Alaba

Suspended: Patrick Wimmer

Türkiye

Injured: Uğurcan Çakır 

Suspended: Hakan Çalhanoğlu, Samet Akaydin

About Macdara Ferris

Macdara Ferris is a contributor since 2007 to Hoops Scene (Shamrock Rovers' match day programme) and is the co-author of two books on Shamrock Rovers - 'Tallaght Time: Shamrock Rovers 2009 to 2012' (with Karl … View Full Profile