- The minus point: possession of the ball
Only one minus point, but it was really thick. The Slovaks closed the center and the Austrians had 45 minutes no idea how they should deal with it. In the build-up to the game in width played and lost balls under pressure, which then led to chances or free kicks for the hosts. The Austrians allowed twelve shots from their opponents, more than they had against in the fall Deutschland (8) or Belgium (7). And that had its origins primarily in playing with the ball and not in defensive behavior.
- Proven quality: defensive behavior
After losing the ball, the Austrians usually reacted quickly, counter-pressing aggressively or sprinting after the ball. Switching from offense to defense was the ÖFB team’s best phase of the game that evening and meant that the Slovaks did nothing with their twelve shots on goal . They often had to finish from poor positions or under pressure, which is why only two of their twelve attempts were on goal Patrick Pentz used to go.
- Rare quality: efficiency
According to the “Expected Goals” statistic, which reflects the quality of scoring chances, the Austrians only had chances for 0.89 goals. But we scored twice. In reality, the only real sitter was awarded when Baumgartner tried to push the ball over the line while sitting (57th).
- Striking: The strong jokers
While not everyone was able to convince from the start, five jokers did it better: Von Xavier Schlager and Max Woeber That was most likely to be expected. The latter started the 2-0 with a great pass in the build-up game, the trio Patrick Wimmer, Romano Schmid and Andreas Weimann completed worth seeing. Schmid and Weimann in particular demonstrated their clean technique with their first contact.
Despite the victory, the Austrians were not really satisfied. Especially captain Marcel Sabitzer spoke plainly: “It was not a sovereign victory. We played sloppily and invited them to counterattack situations.” With so much sober self-criticism, things can only go up.