Sabitzer settles cracker as Austria beat Dutch to seal top spot
2024 Netherlands D Michael Against Sabitzer Kappeler/dpa Scoring Third Ap Marcel A Austria's Group The Celebrates After Side's Picture: Match Goal During Euro His At Via
Euro 2024's forgiving format meant this was a summer’s evening that was supposed to have been robbed of its what-ifs? Monday’s developments had meant Austria and the Netherlands arrived in Berlin knowing progress had been almost certainly assured.
Yet we walked away from the Olympiastadion and a very fun, if at times flawed, 3-2 cracker with one overriding question: what if Ralf Rangnick was coaching the Dutch instead of the Austrians?
Alas, it is Ronald Koeman in the Oranje technical area getting not nearly enough out of a talented group, defensive frailties now rushing in to join a midfield in name only and an attack which only seems to click when Wout Weghorst joins the party.
On the flip side, Rangnick manages to get so much out of his impressive Austrian outfit, not short of talent but not overly blessed with it either. They are instead a testament to their coach, not an indictment of him.
This was no ringing endorsement of the Dutch captain either, Virgil van Dijk dreadfully out of position for the fifth and decisive goal plundered by Marcel Sabitzer just four minutes after Memphis Depay had given the Dutch parity for a second time.
The first leveller was Cody Gakpo’s a minute into the second half after an opening stanza in which the Dutch were utterly dreadful, Donyell Malen’s early own goal opening things.
Over in Dortmund, the French hadn’t been much better, only able to draw with the eliminated Poles and so it is Rangnick, rapidly becoming one of the figures of this German summer, and his unlikely Burschen who topped Group D and head off to see what they can see in the knockout stages. For the Dutch things look grim.
Koeman had spent enough time pondering the merits of Denzel Dumfries and/or Jeremie Frimpong at right back and opted for neither, putting Lutsharel Geertruida in there instead.
How’d it go? Not Geert, to be honest. Within three minutes Austria had got in behind the Feyenoord full back twice already, Alexander Prass whipping one across the face of goal which should have found an Austrian foot.
Geertruida left the doors wide open again just three minutes later and Malen, who had failed miserably as a shield in front of his teammate, then compounded things by meeting Press’s cross to score the quickest own goal in Euros history. Rangnick roared. The Dutch didn’t settle so much as stopped being quite so bloody awful and probably ought to have been level ten minutes later when for the first time they strung together a pretty passing pattern with a cut back finding Tijani Reijnders racing in to the box but he never got his feet right.
In the next six minutes it was genuinely hard to tell if a Dutch player touched the ball, two huge banks of Austrian fans oléing for such an extended period that you genuinely started to feel bad for those in burnt orange.
On the sidelines Koeman was boiling mad. Malen missing a golden opening on 24 minutes hardly helped things. Memphis Depay controlled a dropping ball and fed Reijnders who slipped a ball into a gaping chasm in the Austrian defence only for Malen to scuff it wide. It was a sequence which summed up both sides’ unconvincing aspects, even if Phillipp Lienhart was impressing in possession.
Koeman had seen enough. He hooked Joey Veerman from the midfield when he probably could have removed any one of five or six players. Xavi Simons came in and Cody Gakpo dropped deeper. Did it change things? Marginally perhaps.
Yet the Austrians should have been two up before the break when a corner was again cut back to Marcel Sabitzer, who’d tested Bart Verbruggen earlier. Florian Grillitsch dinked one through the Dutch defence and it skewed towards the feet of Marko Arnautovic who turned like a 35-year-old catapult and missed dreadfully.
Perhaps overwhelmed with the sheer number of his players he could have removed at the interval, Koeman made no changes. Expecting different results from the same conditions is supposed to be unwise but what do we know.
Within seconds of the kick-off Koeman’s side were level, Geertruida’s redemption tour seeing his pick the pocket of Grillitsch and feed Simons who set off with something new, purpose. He held til just the right moment then fed Gakpo who took a touch inside Lienhart and curled it with power past Patrick Pentz. We were level and the Dutch had found life.
They could have been ahead within eight minutes when Virgil van Dijk rose to meet a Depay corner and defensive partner Stefan De Vrij headed another set piece over soon after.
On the hour they’d regret those misses when the Dutch defence was pulled apart far too easily. Wimmer fed a ball inside the left of the box and Jerdy Schouten tried to track Grillitsch but couldn’t stop the Austrian from standing it up to an area where Schmid inexplicably was free to race in and nod home with De Vrij helping it on its way.
Rangnick responded with a triple change, Koeman opting for just a double and the contest looked again for some flow amid an extended ebb. Perhaps Wout Weghorst could provide it? It was as smart a move as any. He duly delivered, nodding on Gakpo’s 75th-minute delivery for Depay to score his first of the tournament, only after what should have been an unnecessary VAR review.
Yet even then the Dutch transpired to lose, Van Dijk playing the whole of the Olympiastadion on as Christoph Baumgartner found Sabitzer and the playmaker arrowed in the winner. The Dutch looked for a third response but were instead forced to settle for third place.
Verbruggen 7; Geertruida 4, De Vrij 5, Van Dijk 6, Ake 5 (Van de Ven 66); Reijnders 6 (Wijnaldum 66), Schouten 5, Veerman 4; Malen 4 (Weghorst 72), Depay 6, Gakpo 5.
Goals: Gakpo (47); Depay (76).
Pentz 7; Posch 6, Wober 6, Lienhart 6 (Baumgartner 63), Prass 7; Seiwald 6, Grillitsch 7 (Querfeld 63); Wimmer 6 (Laimer 63), Sabitzer 7, Schmid 6, Arnautovic 5 (Gregoritsch 78).
Goals: Malen OG (5), Schmid (59), Sabitzer (81).
Posch, Wimmer Referee: Ivan Kruzliak (SVK) 7