During the “penalty shootout” in Ried, Jubilee Puntigam was reliable

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Von Alexander ZambarloukosOctober 29, 2024, 8:37 p.m

Bild: APA/EXPA/Uwe Winter

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Cheers, hustle and bustle, hilarity: Austria’s football women celebrated a 2-1 victory over Slovenia in Ried.
Bild: APA/EXPA/Uwe Winter

Two goals crowned the team captain’s 150th international match. Austria moved into the EURO play-off final with a 2-1 win over Slovenia

Record-breaking national player Sarah Puntigam will remember this performance in the Rieder Innviertel Arena for a long time. The 32-year-old Styrian crowned her 150th international match, for which she was honored by ÖFB President Klaus Mitterdorfer and sports director Peter Schöttel with a framed special jersey with the imprint “150”, with goals 23 and 24 for the women’s national team.

Puntigam secured Austria’s 2-1 (0-0) victory over Slovenia in front of 2,600 visitors with two extremely dry penalties (62nd, 74th). The late goal (96th) also came from a penalty.

After the 3-0 first leg win on Friday, the first of two play-off hurdles on the way to EURO 2025 in Switzerland was overcome with the overall score of 5:1. Chapeau.

Bild: APA/EXPA/Uwe Winter

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Double goalscorer Sarah Puntigam
Bild: APA/EXPA/Uwe Winter

“It’s very emotional for me. It certainly wasn’t our best game, we should have scored more goals. But the most important thing is that we’re through. All that matters is the EURO,” said Puntigam. The focus is already on the “final” for a European Championship ticket; the opponent will be an old friend, namely Poland, number 32 in the FIFA world rankings.

The red-white-red team is in position 17 and is not the only reason to be favored. In the European Championship qualifying group phase there have already been two encounters with the ensemble around top striker Ewa Pajor (FC Barcelona). In Gdynia and Altach, Austria retained the upper hand 3-1. That’s supposed to be a good omen.

The decision is made in Vienna

Advance sales for the showdown in Viola Park in Vienna-Favoriten (December 3rd, 6:15 p.m., ORF 1) against the Poles, who for their part did not show any weakness against Romania (2:1/4:1), are now open.

The winners of this knockout duel will go to the EURO, for Team Austria it would be their third participation en suite. In 2017 the final stop was only in the semi-finals, and in 2022 in the quarter-finals.

More on the topic

National team

The woman who puts Marko Arnautovic in the shade

Location Ried: Sarah Puntigam will play her 150th international match for Austria in the European Championship play-off against Slovenia on Tuesday (6 p.m.).

The woman who puts Marko Arnautovic in the shade

Head coach Irene Fuhrmann did not go into the Slovenia match without worries. Goal scorer Eileen Campbell, who suffered a circulatory collapse at the camp in Geinberg on Monday, did not get fit in time. “Mask woman” Nicole Billa – the Cologne striker suffered a broken nose – slipped into the ÖFB starting eleven for the first time in 13 months and did a good job.

Austria controlled the action, impressed at times with power football, but also revealed weaknesses in the backward movement. If the match had ended 6:2, nobody could have complained with a goal shooting ratio of 15:4.

Image: gepa

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2,600 fans tirelessly cheered on Austria’s women’s national team.
Image: gepa

In the middle of it all, instead of just being there, was SC Freiburg all-rounder Annabel Schasching from St. Aegidi, who provided numerous offensive accents on the right side. Fuhrmann was only partially satisfied with the overall performance: “It’s inexplicable how many unforced errors we make. We definitely need to improve in the next round,” said the Viennese: “Knockout duels are a special mental challenge – before especially if you go in as the favorite.”

Austria also remained undefeated in the second match in Ried. At the end of May there was a 1-1 draw against Iceland – also with a penalty goal from Puntigam.