2024-10-29 18:57:00
Austria’s national women’s soccer team is in the play-off final for a European Championship ticket. After the 3-0 win in the first leg, there was also a complete success against Slovenia at home in Ried. Two penalty goals led to a 2-1 win.
Austria’s women’s national football team only has one hurdle left to overcome on the way to EURO 2025 in Switzerland. In the play-off semi-final, the Fuhrmann team won the second leg against Slovenia 2-1 (0-0) in Ried on Tuesday. After the 3-0 win in the away game, progress was just a formality.
The opponent in the play-off final on November 29th and December 3rd is Poland, which also won 4-1 at home against Romania after a 2-1 win in the first leg.
When the game kicked off in Ried, many of the 2,600 fans weren’t even in the stadium. Long queues at the checkouts showed how great the interest in the ÖFB women’s team was. Anyone who was already in the stands first saw captain Sarah Puntigam being honored for her 150th international match and then an immediately refreshing Austrian team. Nicole Billa (wearing a protective mask after a broken nose) started as the striker instead of Eileen Campbell. The Freiburg legionnaire had to miss the game due to circulatory problems.
Sarah Zadrazil had the best chance of the opening phase, whose shot was cleared by goalkeeper Zala Mersnik with her fingertips for a corner (16′). Many more good scenes followed, but few conclusions. Billa was denied by the goalkeeper from close range in stoppage time in the first half.
The Austrians’ dominance became even stronger after the break. However, a standard situation was needed to score a goal: after a foul on Lilli Purtscheller, veteran Sarah Puntigam confidently took the penalty (62′).
Rolling attacks from the ÖFB team continued to shape the game, twelve minutes after the opening goal the next penalty came after Julia Hickelsberger was clumsily run over by the goalkeeper. Puntigam stepped up again and scored again into the right corner to make it 2-0.
In stoppage time, Slovenia managed to score a goal. After a VAR check there was a penalty, Lara Prasnikar shortened in the duel with Manuela Zinsberger. Final score: 2:1 for Austria.
Voices about the game
Team boss Irene Fuhrmann was not only satisfied with the assessment: “In terms of results, it’s okay, but in terms of performance, there were too many mistakes in possession of the ball in the second leg. That can become a problem if we want to survive against Poland. We also had some very nice moves played through the front and created chances to score. But I would like us to be more dynamic and present throughout the game. We know that a play-off duel is not a sure-fire success and we still have a lot of work to do in the Generali Arena We had 10,000 spectators against France last year. It would be a dream to be carried by such a wave again against Poland.”
Sarah Zadrazil said: “It wasn’t easy in Slovenia. Today it could have been higher. But it was important to overcome the hurdle. We want to go to the European Championships. It was important to perform confidently. Everything wasn’t perfect, but We’re already looking forward to the next round against Poland. They have very good players on the pitch. We’ll throw everything in to overcome this hurdle.”
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