Rangnick rues Bank-esque save as Austria exit Euros after Gunok superb stop: ‘I can’t imagine that we are going home today’

Macdara Ferris reports from Leipzig

Austrian boss Ralf Rangnick was left ruing the fact his team was facing ‘Gordon Banks’ in the Türkiye goal in Leipzig on Tuesday night.

Trailing 2-1 deep in injury time, Christoph Baumgartner directed his header down onto the Leipzig turf with the ball seemingly destined for the back of the net only for Mert Gunok to pull off the save of the tournament to push away the ball as it bounced to his right.

Rangnick reckoned if that header had gone in, his team would have prevailed in extra-time and so he couldn’t quite believe that his team are exiting the Euros at this last 16 stage while Türkiye head to Berlin to take on the Netherlands this weekend.

“We got one goal (through Michael Gregoritsch) and had more time to get a draw but it is difficult when you have Gordon Banks in the opponents goal!” said Rangnick.

“You need some luck and if Baumgartner’s header had gone in at the end we would have won the game. I believe that if it had gone to extra-time we would have won as they were exhausted at the end and we had a physical advantage.”

He was also left annoyed with how this team dealt with the delivery of Arda Güler’s corners. The Real Madrid starlet provided the centres for the two Türkiye goals, both of which were scored by player-of-the-match Merih Demiral.

“The only thing I’d reproach ourselves for is that we didn’t make enough of our chances and we didn’t defend those set pieces well enough,” said the manager who turned 66 this week.  

“I can’t imagine that we are going home today. We thought we would continue our journey here so we are disappointed but one team progresses and the other one doesn’t.”

Reflecting on Austria’s tournament Rangnick praised his side’s ‘entertaining’ performance and, without mentioning other countries (France and England perhaps), he said his team wasn’t one of the sleepy sides still in the tournament.

“The four games we played were very entertaining including today’s match,” said Rangnick whose team scored seven goals in those matches.

“They were four super intense games. There were other games I watched that were hard to stay awake but not with our games.”

The Red Bull Arena was lit up in red tonight and lit up by a world class save at the death from Mert Gunok to secure Türkiye passage to a quarter-final against the Netherlands in Berlin on Saturday.

EURO 2024 Report: Austria 1 – 2 Türkiye https://t.co/1k3F5lpcRg

— Macdara Ferris (@macdarabueller) July 2, 2024