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Drawn in Group B along Germany, Croatia and Poland, Austria will be making their debut in the Euro finals this year.
Austria, who qualified automatically for Euro 2008 as co-hosts with neighbouring Switzerland, have come under immense pressure from their fans and national media after some disappointing results.
"For this tournament, where we are clearly massive outsiders, we need to be a really closely-knit team and we have already started to develop a real team spirit,” says coach Josef Hickersberger.
Team profile:
The team is consisted of players from the Austrian Bundesliga, as well as players from teams across Europe, like striker Roland Linz (S.C. Braga), and striker Martin Harnik (Werder Bremen), to mention some.
Austria has usually deployed a 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 formation, with an accent on the defence.
The team is not well known for scoring many goals, but Ronald Linz has been a consistent scorer with S.C. Braga in the Portuguese Superliga.
Although a relatively young team, the midfield will be supported by experienced players like Joachim Standfest (Austria Wien) and Rene Aufhauser (Red Bull Salzburg)
Defender Sebastian Prodl, and striker Martin Harnik have been called up for the senior team after taking part in the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Canada, where the Austrian U-20 team finished 4th.
Coach profile:
Josef Hickersberger will need all of his vast experience from the FIFA World Cup finals, where he has appeared both as a players and as a coach, if he is to provide an upset with the underdog hosts. He has had 39 caps for Austria as a player before he started his coaching career.
Hickersberger led Austria at the 1990 World Cup in Italy, but was fired after his team lost to the Faroe Islands in the qualifying for the Euro ‘92. His second spell with the team started in January 2006.
Team Record:
Although Austria has never qualified for the European Soccer Championships, they have played at seven World Cup tournaments. Their last appearance in the World Cup was in France in 1998
Sources: UEFA, FIFA, Euro 2008, Austrian Soccer Federation
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