Austria Football

Austria National Football Team

The official Austrian Football Association controls the Austrian national football team. The Association was founded in 1904. The team flourished in the first years, leading to the qualification for the World Cup in 1938. However, this was at the beginning of the Second World War. In that year, Austria was annexed to Germany.  After the Second World War, the Austrian team was again separated from Germany. A lot of changeable football years followed.

In the 21st century, the Austria Team began to decline. They failed to qualify for several World Cups and European Tournaments. The following qualification for a major tournament was relatively easy. The team automatically qualified for the Euro 2008 because they were a co-host. Not every home supporter was happy with this. They feared embarrassment results being in a group against top tier countries Germany, Poland and Croatia. Nevertheless, the team managed to limit the damage with a 1-1 against Poland and 1-0 lost against Croatia and Germany.

One of the most memorable participation was in the European Championship in 2016. The Austria national team was considered a group favorite. They were in a group with Portugal, Hungary and debutants Iceland. They started their campaign with a shocking defeat against Hungary. They later performed an astonishing draw (0-0) against Portugal. Nonetheless, they were knocked out by Iceland due to a 2-1 defeat. Portugal, who drew every match in the group stage, would later be crowned European Champions.

The Austria team later failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup.

In the EURO 2020, the Austria team was knocked out by Italy in the round of 16.

Stadium

The home venue of the Austria National football team is the Ernst-Happel-Stadion. The stadium lies in Leopoldstadt and has a capacity of 50,865. It’s the largest stadium in Austria. The stadium is named after Ernst Happel.

Happel was an Austrian football player and later a successful manager. He managed to win the league and domestic cup titles in top tier countries in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Austria. He won the European Cup twice (with Feyenoord and Hamburger SV). Next to that, he was also a prosperous nations manager for the Netherlands in the 1978 World Cup.