The European Championships are known for some massive upsets in history. Back in 1992, Denmark couldn’t even qualify for the tournament, and ended up taking it home in a stunning upset. Twelve years later, Greece were stunning the football world to earn their spot in the history books by winning the whole thing. Austria have about as much of a chance as either of those two sides did at that stage when they head to this most strange of tournaments.
Here at NetBet, we’ve got them priced at 80/1 to win the tournament, which would return £400 if you bet just £5 and they pulled off the massive shock. The tournament underdogs lost 1-0 to England at Middlesbrough on Wednesday evening and then they face Slovakia in Vienna four days later as preparation. After those two games we should have a better vantage point as to how they are expected to do. Their group is not the toughest in the tournament to get out of, with Macedonia and the Ukraine both very winnable games either side of the crunch clash with Holland in their second match.
Key Players
English fans will recognise Watford goalkeeper Daniel Bachmann in the squad, as well as Bayern Munich’s David Alaba who is considered one of the top players in the world and particularly at Bundesliga level. Austria’s squad, who are managed by Franco Foda, is made up of 21 German Bundesliga players, including Frankfurt’s Martin Hinteregger, Leverkusen’s Julian Baumgartlinger and Leipzig’s Marcel Sabitzer and just two domestic-based players in LASK’s Xaver Schlager and Salzburg left back Andreas Ulmer. Foda has been the manager of the Austrian Football Team since 2017 after three seasons coaching Sturm Graz and one season with Kaiserslautern. He is likely to implement a 4-2-3-1 formation with star player David Alaba coming in at a more advanced midfield position rather than in the deeper position which he plays for Bayern Munich.
They play Macedonia first on Sunday 13th June, before the Netherlands on the 17th and the Ukraine four days later on the 21st. Can Austria win Euro 2020? It’s highly unlikely, and the odds reflect that. But they can likely get out of their group, and once you reach knockout football, Wales proved in 2016 that anything truly is possible. We’d maybe predict a quarter-final finish for them, and if we’re very generous they might make the semis if results go their way on other sides of the bracket.
Check out the NetBet football page for all of the odds on Austria and the other 23 teams’ matches throughout Euro 2020.
Austria Euro 2020 Squad:
Goalkeepers: Daniel Bachmann (Watford), Pavao Pervan (Wolfsburg), Alexander Schlager (LASK)
Defenders: David Alaba (Bayern Munich), Aleksandar Dragovic (Leverkusen), Marco Friedl (Werder Bremen), Martin Hinteregger (Eintracht Frankfurt), Stefan Lainer (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Philipp Lienhart (Freiburg), Stefan Posch (Hoffenheim), Christopher Trimmel (Union Berlin), Andreas Ulmer (Salzburg)
Midfielders: Julian Baumgartlinger (Leverkusen), Christoph Baumgartner (Hoffenheim), Florian Grillitsch (Hoffenheim), Stefan Ilsanker (Eintracht Frankfurt), Konrad Laimer (Leipzig), Valentino Lazaro (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Marcel Sabitzer (Leipzig), Louis Schaub (Luzern), Xaver Schlager (Wolfsburg), Alessandro Schöpf (Schalke)
Forwards: Marko Arnautovic (Shanghai), Michael Gregoritsch (Augsburg), Sasa Kalajdzic (Stuttgart), Karim Onisiwo (Mainz)