Austria, Turkiye aim for quarter-finals at UEFA Euro 2024 on TSN
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The final spot in the quarter-finals will be on the line as Group D winner Austria take on Group F runner up Turkiye in the Round of 16 at UEFA Euro 2024.
When Austria was drawn into a group with France, Netherlands and Poland, perhaps no one saw them emerging as the top team, but after dropping their opener, they collected six points to clinch first place.
Marcel Sabitzer’s 80th-minute marker was the difference as they defeated Netherlands for the first time in 30 years on Matchday 3, which was enough to secure the group win.
"It feels incredible. My Werder Bremen teammates always laughed at me when I told them we could finish top of our group,” said Austria midfielder Romano Schmid. “Now it's happened, it's incredible. The head coach just said this is when the competition really starts. Knockout matches, we all dreamed of games like that as a kid. There's just one game; win that and we keep going."
Austria is into the Round of 16 for the second straight tournament, they fell in the same round in extra time against eventual champions Italy at UEFA Euro 2020.
"It's incredible to finish top of the group that was the hardest possible on based on UEFA coefficients, said Austria head coach Ralf Rangnick. “We started with an unlucky own goal against France, dealt with all the pressure put on us to win against Poland, and then to end as group winners is something very special."
Turkiye opened with a 3-1 win over Georgia in one of the games of the tournament and closed the group stage with a stoppage-time goal by Cenk Tosun to knock off Czechia and grab second in the standings.
"I am very happy to have scored, but I am even happier because the team won,” said Tosun. “We always play dreaming of the success of Euro 2008. I also want to thank our fans. They truly make us feel like we are playing the matches in Türkiye. We will continue to play for them."
Turkiye will be trying to replicate 2008 when they advanced to the semifinals in Basel, Switzerland where they were defeated 3-2 by Germany.
"We finished the group in second place with six points,” said Tosun. “Now we'll face Austria. We suffered a heavy defeat to them in a friendly match in March. This time we want to win."
In a pre-tournament match, Michael Gregoritsch scored three times, Xaver Schlager, Christoph Baumgartner and Maximilian Entrup also found the net as Austria routed Turkiye 6-1 on Mar. 26.
The winner of this match will face either Romania or Netherlands in the quarter-finals on July 6 in Berlin.