Turkey beats Austria 2-1 to advance to quarter-finals

Under the rain in Leipzig, Vincenzo Montella’s Turkey beat Ralf Rangnick’s Austria 2-1 and booked their place in the quarterfinals of Euro 2024, where they will face the Netherlands. The opening goal was scored by Demiral after a few seconds, who repeated the feat in the second half from a corner and scored a brace, which was answered by Gregoritsch’s goal, in vain. Not even a minute into the game, in fact, Turkey took the lead, thanks to a corner taken by Guler and badly managed by the Austrian defense, with Demiral sending the ball into the net from two steps away.

The result is unlocked and Austria tries to immediately reverse the front, coming very close to equalizing with Baumgartner, who lets loose a right-footed cross shot that ends up just off the post to the right of Gunok. An electric start to the match, in which the teams gradually stabilize until returning to a tactical balance that leaves no room for clear opportunities until half-time.

In the second half, however, Rangnick inserted Gregoritsch alongside Arnautovic to reinforce the Austrian offensive department and the former Bologna player immediately created an opportunity for himself inside the area, finding a nice response from Gunok. Turkey was saved and found the second goal in the 59th minute, again with Demiral, who was good at jumping higher than anyone else on another corner kicked well by Guler. However, when the match seemed to be in full control of Montella’s team, Austria closed the gap, again on the developments of the corner deflected by Posch and pushed into the net from two steps away by Gregoritsch.

2-1 in Leipzig and the final siege by Austria, with the Turks crushed in their own area and ready to restart, as happens in the recovery in which Yilmaz is launched in depth but stopped by the save of Pentz. From one goalkeeper to the other, when on the header of Baumgartner it is Gunok who pulls out a miracle dive that saves Turkey and in fact gives them the qualification to the quarter-finals