ÖFB team convinced

Janko: “The boys didn’t deserve that”

Michael Gregoritsch (left) tries to comfort Alexander Prass.

(Bild: AP ( via APA) Austria Presse Agentur/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

The Austrian national soccer team can leave Germany with their heads held high despite being knocked out of the European Championship in the round of 16. This is the opinion of ex-international Marc Janko, who paid the team "a huge compliment". "They passed with distinction, nobody would have thought that," said the Lower Austrian. Janko believes that coach Ralf Rangnick will face a personnel problem in the center of the attack in the future. He completely misses one type of player in attack.

"To be eliminated as the clearly better team in this way is of course extremely bitter," said Janko, referring to the 2-1 defeat against Turkey on Tuesday. Two goals from set-pieces can always happen, but Turkey generally offered little in attack. The Turks had fought their way into the quarter-finals. "Unfortunately, that's soccer too. And that's also a legitimate means," the 41-year-old told APA - Austria Press Agency. "The boys didn't deserve that. But soccer doesn't follow any logic." It's also bad that the players have "no chance of making up for it for the time being, because the next competitive match is even further away".

Marc Janko

(Bild: GEPA/GEPA pictures)

The former striker said that he could empathize with the current team players after the defeat. At EURO 2016 in France, Austria also lost 2-1 to Iceland in the all-important final group game in Paris, with Janko on the pitch from the 46th minute. As it was not a knockout match, the two games cannot be compared. "But Iceland didn't play us down back then either, everything went against us then too," explained Janko. But if you look at the entire history of the ÖFB, the night in Leipzig was "definitely one of the most painful defeats".

Important step forward
The takeaway was that the team had "taken another step forward in its development". The Austrians' courageous, proactive play had carried people away and people had enjoyed watching the team. Numerous people he spoke to at home and abroad had told him this. "The way we played was much more convincing at this European Championship," Janko also referred back to the European Championship finals three years ago, when the team only lost to the eventual champions Italy in the round of 16 after extra time (1:2).

Before the start of the tournament, reaching the knockout round was the primary goal in the ÖFB camp and among the public. You could say that the duty was fulfilled - but Janko sees it differently. "I wouldn't call it a duty if you look at the group. They passed with distinction, nobody would have thought that," said the Lower Austrian, who has played 70 international matches (28 goals) for Austria. In the group stage, the Austrian team came first ahead of France, the Netherlands and Poland.

Who will play at the top?
We can look to the future with optimism, said Janko, who was present at the games against the Netherlands and Turkey. However, the ex-legionnaire identifies a problem area "right up front", i.e. in the center of attack. "When Marko (Arnautovic; note) retires, we will miss his quality a lot," emphasized the former team captain. Arnautovic and Michael Gregoritsch are currently in a class of their own. "They are simply our best players, the quality of the others doesn't come close to them."

Marko Arnautovic could soon no longer be part of the national team.

(Bild: AFP)

There is also a lack of supply on the attacking flanks. "The only thing I've thought about at this European Championship that could take us a step further would be if we had an outfield player with depth who could develop speed on the dribble," said Janko. "That's also a stylistic device against deep teams to open up holes. Marko used to play that when he was younger. Since he's been in the middle, we've been missing that a bit." In qualifying, they were able to compensate for this well by playing quickly through the middle and with transitional situations, but this deficiency became apparent at the finals.