Austria 0-2 Hungary: Euro 2016 – as it happened

Bye!

Right then, I’m off. It’s been memorable. I leave you with a parting gift, in the shape of Stuart James’s match report:

Here’s the scorer of Hungary’s second goal as he was nine years ago – playing for Yeovil:

The game got the big screen treatment at the Rathaus in Vienna, aka disappointment central.

And secondly, Gregg Bakowski’s Portugal v Iceland liveblog:

A couple of post-match links for you, starting with today’s Euro 2016 picture of the day:

I don’t think that this, like Italy’s win over Belgium yesterday, was the victory of a united team against a bunch of disparate individuals. Austria were OK, rather than wretched. Hungary overperformed, and took one of few chances. Five minutes later Austria went down to 10 men, and the die was cast.

What a fantastic result for Hungary, the rank outsiders in Group F. And what a massive optimism-deflator for Austria and the “euphoria” that was reportedly being experienced in their home nation. It was not the finest game of the tournament, but Hungary definitely exceeded expectations, in the quality of their passing, defending and, ultimately, finishing. I’m not sure they should be booking any mid-July open-top bus tours quite yet, but still, very nicely done.

As he comes to terms with that defeat, Arnautovic is doing a mighty one-man strop in the middle of the pitch.

90+3 mins: Alaba takes a free kick on the right, and Austria work it well to leave Arnautovic free on the edge of the area. His shot, through a heavily congested box, flies straight into Kiraly’s stomach.

90+1 mins: Schöpf, with Arnautovic running into the area and into space to his left, chooses instead to blast a shot wide.

90+1 mins: Into stoppage time we go, and there’ll be at least five minutes of it!

89 mins: Fantasztikus góljával! I have not put that phrase through any kind of translation software, but I think I can work it out. In other news, Pinter comes on to replace Nemeth.

85 mins: It’s all getting a bit testy now. Fiola goes down after a tackle from Fuchs – another horribly twisted ankle, it turns out – Austria play on, and then Nagy flies in late on the touchline, fortunately without making much contact.

84 mins: Austria work the ball to Alaba, running into the area from the right, and his left-foot shot deflects over. Kiraly collects the corner.

82 mins: It has, surprisingly, taken nearly 82 minutes for Franz Ferdinand to get a mention. “I’m surprised that neither the Austrians nor Hungarians have Archduke Ferdinand in goal,” writes Ben Bamford. “He would have been eligible to play for both and historically proved to be an excellent shot-blocker.”

80 mins: Nemeth runs into Schöpf in midfield when really there was no need. Both players go down for a while, and when the referee eventually helps Nemeth to his feet he shows him a yellow card for his troubles.

79 mins: A change for the leaders – Kleinheisler goes off, and Stieber comes on.

79 mins: Austria have the ball for a while in front of Austria’s defence – all nine men of it – but find no way through the ranks, and when they try to go over them Kiraly collects.

77 mins: Harnik off, Schöpf on for Austria, their final substitution.

76 mins: Gera nips in to steal the ball in midfield, for the nth time today. He hasn’t lost the magic.

75 mins: Szalai’s goal was his first for 59 matches and Hungary’s first in a European Championship finals for 16,068 days.

73 mins: A chance for Austria! Fuchs crosses low from the left and Sabitzer runs onto it, slamming high and wide from 15 yards.

71 mins: Oooh! Nemeth shoots across goal from the edge of the area, left to right, and the ball was arrowing towards the bottom corner before Almer tipped it wide!

70 mins: Austria continue to push forward, but increasingly it is Hungary who are profiting from their ambition. Priskin had a glimpse of goal from his first touch though nothing came of it, and Nagy just slammed a shot over the bar from 20 yards.

69 mins: The goalscorer goes off, and Tamas Priskin, who I once saw have an extremely good game against, I think, Wigan, though the match was rained off in the second half.

68 mins: Austria attack, Sabitzer crosses, and Austria to a man go wild as it hits Kadar, demanding a penalty for handball. The referee says no, and this is one call he gets right.

66 mins: Hinteregger shoots into a thicket of players, gets it back, shoots into another thicket of players, gets it back again, and then slams into the bottom corner – but the whistle has already gone!

65 mins: Austria make a substitution, taking off Janko and bringing on Rubin Okotie.

64 mins: Scalai and several of his team-mates leap into the crowd to celebrate. After 18 months without a goal, that’s got to feel good. There appears to be no automatic caution for doing so, either.

60 mins: A howler in Austria’s defence presents Szalai with the ball – albeit only just beyond the centre circle – but his first touch is cataclysmically awful, and Austria get it back.

59 mins: Marcel Sabitzer comes on for Junuzovic.

57 mins: A bit of a delay while a couple of injuries are dealt with. Janko doesn’t stay down long – he lost a header and went down with what appeared to be wounded pride – but Junuzovic, who turned his ankle in the first half, is coming off.

55 mins: Now that’s a shot! Dzsudzsak collects the ball 30 yards out, advances a few paces and fair wallops the ball goalwards, only for Almer to tip it round the post. The corner comes to nought.

52 mins: Gera sends a 25-yarder bouncing wide of goal. These are two teams in desperate need of some shooting practise.

49 mins: Another low cross from Austria’s left, and this one is inexplicably missed by Guzmics, the Hungary defender, at the near post. Any Austrian ghosting into the centre of goal at that point would have had a tap-in, but none was.

48 mins: Austria attack, Baumgartlinger passing to Alaba on the left, and his low cross zipping just behind Janko, who can do nothing with it.

46 mins: Hungary have been all over these first 30 seconds, which end with Fiola shooting low and slow from 20 yards. Almer collects.

46 mins: Peeeeep! Hungary get the second half under way.

The players are back out, flexing and limbering.

“The Euros started this game with an average of one goal every 50 minutes of football so far,” writes Kevin Porter. “The quality of football hasn’t been bad, but fans of soft-rock TV goal-fest montages are going to start getting sorely disenchanted if we stretching out towards one goal an hour.” Ah, but there’s a good quality v quantity debate to be had. There might not have been many goals, but someone could already put together an epic slow-mo compilation.

If that’s a Bon Jovi concert programme, it’s probably the actual, real Kiraly.

Clarification from Kari Tulinius (see 39mins): “I was mistaken. Meisl was indeed only the manager of Austria while Austria-Hungary still existed. He got the job in 1913 and I assumed, wrongly, that it had a single national team. It was indeed a fact from a world with an alternate history.”

About 1min 50sec into this video you can witness Adam Szalai’s last first-team goal. Just the 551 days ago. It’s a tap-in from a yard.

45+1 mins: Into stoppage time we scream, and there will only be one minute of it (probably).

44 mins: Harnik vaguely caresses Kleinheisler in the back, level with the edge of Hungary’s penalty area, and the Hungarian collapses to the floor. In the first couple of days of this competition these cynical attempts to win free kicks were being routinely waves away by referees, but that seems to have been forgotten about now, and this one is certainly rewarded. “Thought I’d share a gem from a commentator on czech TV,” writes Pete Kreff. “In terms of possession the Hungarians have the upper hand over Austria, something that would have been unthinkable just 200 years ago.”

43 mins: Chance! Dzsudzsak is played into the penalty area by Kleinheisler, but his first touch takes him wide and his shot is fired across goal and wide!

41 mins: Arnautovic, having done the game’s second flying backheel volley in the build-up, is released down the left, the pass splitting Hungary’s defence apart. He slides the ball across goal, and Harnik arrives beyond the far post to slide in and … totally mishit it and bundle the ball out of play.

39 mins: “I haven’t seen the name of Hugo Meisl mentioned in connection with this game,” writes Kari Tulinius. “He was not only the coach of the Austrian Wunderteam of the 1930s, and the founder of the European International Cup, which was this strongest of the precursor tournaments to the Euros, but he was also the last manager of the Austro-Hungarian national team. By the by, Austria-Hungary having a national football team feels like something out of an alternative history book, like Genghis Khan in a tank or Marie Curie flying to Mars.” Interesting – Uefa’s pre-match press kit said that though “Austria-Hungary was a single nation from 1867–1918”, “they maintained separate football teams”.

37 mins: Zoltan Gera tackles Arnautovic. Excellent challenge, Gera sliding in and taking the ball cleanly. Arnautovic rolls around unnecessarily for a while.

35 mins: Great save! Janko knocks the ball down and Januzovic volleys low and hard and bouncy from 20 yards, Kiraly diving to his left to push it away.

34 mins: Dzsudzsak sends the ball into the penalty area, where Szalai rises unmarked to mis-head it way wide and out of play.

33 mins: Szalai beats Dragovic on the left wing, turns and briefly heads off. But Dragovic sticks up a leg, and touches him on the thigh with a foot. Szalai collapses dramatically, and Dragovic is booked.

32 mins: Alaba shoots into the wall from the free kick.

31 mins: Januzovic tumbles again, this time 30 yards from goal, and this time the referee does blow his whistle. There was a lovely turn from Julian Baumgartlinger just before that.

29 mins: Adam Nagy’s boot has fallen off, so we wait for him to put it back on. Henry Lubienski emails with confirmation that the correct pronunciation of his surname is “Notch”.

28 mins: Fuchs crosses and the ball deflects into the path of Junuzovic, who loses the race to Fiola and then tumbles to the ground. He looks towards the referee beseechingly, but gets nothing.

26 mins: Arnautovic seems quite miffed about a Fiola challenge, doing some extravagant finger-wagging in the aftermath.

23 mins: Szalai’s flying backheel flick-volley sends the ball spinning to Gera, level with the corner of the penalty area but 25 yards out. Had the midfielder’s shot flown into the top corner, it would have been an absolute beauty. Instead it sped along the turf, and Almer picked it up.

22 mins: I believe it is literally impossible to fall asleep while listening to Live is Life, such is the amount of fist-pumping you’ll be doing. They may have used one of Opus’s slower numbers, of course.

21 mins: If ITV’s commentator is to be believed, Adam Nagy’s surname is pretty much pronounced “Norwich”. Hungary, though, are having an excellent spell, zipping the ball around very pleasingly and hogging possession for the last couple of minutes.

19 mins: Nemeth finds Kleinheisler on the left with a nice backheel flick through the legs of the defender at his back.

16 mins: A delay while Zlatko Junuzovic receives treatment. Replays show him turning his ankle pretty awkwardly as he attempted to dispossess Zoltan Gera. That looked pretty ouchy, but he’s walking off under his own steam.

16 mins: Austria’s best move of the game ends with Szalai’s shot from the edge of the area being blocked.

15 mins: We’ve got the tournament’s oldest player here, and also the youngest referee – Clément Turpin is just 34.

13 mins: Dragovic flattens Szalai in his desperation to win the ball on the half-way line. The referee blows his whistle.

11 mins: Kleinheisler has another pop from distance, but this shot, from about 20 yards out, flies way over the bar.

10 mins: Now they do! And Alaba has another great chance! Arnautovic cuts in from the left wing, spots Alaba’s surging run into the area, picks him out with a sliderule pass, but the low shot is saved by Kiraly.

10 mins: A lot of possession turnover at present. I don’t think any team has strung more than two passes together for a couple of minutes.

8 mins: I think Opus were 100% Austrian, but that song certainly crosses boundaries and is beloved of the whole world.

6 mins: Fuchs is released down the left, where he and Hungary’s No5, Attila Fiola, run into each other at full pelt. There’s a short delay while they go “oof” repeatedly.

4 mins: Hungary have the second shot of the day, from Kleinheisler. It’s angled similarly to Alaba’s, but it’s more of a lazy bobbler, and Robert Almer collects easily.

1 min: Alaba hits the post! Just 32 seconds on the clock, and the Austria midfielder slams a left-footed shot from 25 yards that flies well wide of Kiraly, dips and hits the base of the post!

1 min: They’re off!

The second most popular Austrian song in Austria seems to be Euro 2016 themed:

This, meanwhile, is the most popular Austrian song in Austria. It’s quite intensively cheesy.

The anthems are being played. Alternatively, this is the most popular Hungarian song in Hungary at the moment. The band appear to share a name with a swingers’ hookup website:

The players are in the tunnel. Five minutes to go.

“Kiraly’s Dad Sweats are great,” enthuses Mike Wilner. “Can we find out if he plays with his reading glasses on a chain? Or does he prefer the flip-up, clip-on sunglass attachment? Old guys rule!” He’s only 40. He’s a young man, dammit.

The Derby County striker Andreas Weimann is watching. But just in case the game turns out to be dull, he’s sorted himself out with a ball pool to play with.

Meanwhile, Austria just have some water, and a few unidentified bags of unknown snackery:

It looks like Hungary are, um, hungry. Their dressing room contains a large box of sandwiches, a huge pile of bananas, a large stack of Twix bars, and two paper bags of mystery.

A semi-humorous preview of both this and today’s other match, courtesy of the Fiver:

Here’s today’s official team sheet:

But if you’d prefer them in straight-up text-based form:

Austria: Almer, Klein, Dragovic, Hinteregger, Fuchs, Baumgartlinger, Alaba, Harnik, Junuzovic, Arnautovic, Janko. Subs: Lindner, Garics, Ilsanker, Okotie, Suttner, Prodl, Wimmer, Schopf, Hinterseer, Sabitzer, Jantscher, Ozcan.
Hungary: Kiraly, Fiola, Guzmics, Lang, Kadar, Gera, Nemeth, Nagy, Kleinheisler, Dzsudzsak, Szalai. Subs: Dibusz, Korhut, Elek, Bode, Lovrencsics, Pinter, Nikolic, Stieber, Priskin, Bese, Gulacsi, Juhasz.
Referee: Clement Turpin (France).

If you’d like to know more about the Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux, where Austria and Hungary are preparing to strut their stuff, these will be 46 seconds well spent:

Kiraly listens to this song before every match, apparently. His car – a mini – has a bespoke Bon Jovi-themed paint job.

Adam Nagy’s the player to watch in the Hungary team, though. A year ago he had never played a first-team match. Now he’s a key player in defensive midfield, and can be expected to move to one of the continent’s big teams unless he a) gets horribly injured, or b) doesn’t want to.

On Gabor Kiraly and tracksuit bottoms: “The most important thing is that they should be loose, preferably one size bigger.”

The highlight of Austria’s Euro 2016 preparations:

Today’s teams:

Today Gabor Kiraly will break Lothar Matthäus’s record as the European Championship’s oldest player by the massive margin of 349 days.

Hello world!

So, the penultimate Euro 2016 first-round group-stage encounter is upon us, and it sees one of the tournaments darker dark horses take on one of the longer long shots in a match enlivened with various historical and political subtexts.

Austria were the second best nation in qualifying (after England), with nine wins, one draw and not a single defeat as they trotted through Group G with the very minimum of fuss, finishing eight points ahead of England’s opening-game nemesis Russia, and fully 10 points ahead of Sweden. Fifa now rank them 10th in the entire world, one place above England. And in the streets of Vienna, Salzburg and Klagenfurt everyone is getting very excited.

“There are very high expectations in Austria,” says Austria’s coach, Marcel Koller. “Our task is to not go overboard and build up to the game in a very clear frame of mind. It comes down to one’s state of mind.”

Hungary’s record in qualifying was less overwhelming, as they finished behind Northern Ireland and Romania in an underwhelming Group F. Sure, they were the second-best third-best team, only narrowly missing out on automatic qualification, but it was also a particularly weak group. Still, they’re making all the right noises – “We are brimming with confidence and will challenge Austria,” said their coach, Bernd Storck (whose name sounds like a distressing case for the RSPB) – and they’re also looking very dapper indeed.

Game very much on, then.

Simon will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s Ben Fisher on Austria’s revival under Marcel Koller:

After Marcel Koller’s appointment as Austria coach almost five years ago, he was sneered at, criticised and questioned. Before taking the job, the former Switzerland midfielder had indifferent managerial spells in Germany with Köln and Bochum, where he was sacked in 2009. Now he is regarded in Austria as der Nationalheld – the national hero. “It is recognition for me that we have developed something,” said Koller. Under him, Austria have soared from 77th in the Fifa rankings to inside the top 10, ahead of England and France.

For the first time, Austria have secured a place at a European Championship by qualifying. When they played at the 2008 tournament as co-hosts they lost two and drew one of their three games. Under Koller, though, everything has changed. “It is a totally different team to 2008,” said the Watford defender Sebastian Prödl. “The whole package is different and our preparation then was very different. Not only the players but also the whole setup has really advanced. Austrian football has established a brand of football.”

Austria were untouchable during qualification from Group G, finishing eight points ahead of second-placed Russia and scoring 22 goals, four of which came against Sweden last September. After securing a place at the finals with that 4-1 victory, Koller celebrated by wearing a beret and eating a baguette in his post‑match press conference.

Read the full article here.