Two European Championship favorites unexpectedly eliminated!

Janak9955

With the conclusion of all the Round of 16 matches in the European Championship, Austria suffered a 1-2 defeat against Turkey, thus finalizing the list of the top eight teams. Despite both Romania and Austria advancing as group leaders and becoming the dark horses of this tournament, neither of these two frontrunners managed to progress further in the knockout stages, eventually getting eliminated one after another. Among them, the performance of Austria’s former Chinese Super League star Marko Arnautović was disastrous, his play inadvertently helped Turkey make history.

In this European Championship, the Austria team led by Ralf Rangnick had already shone once on the European stage. They caused an upset by defeating the Netherlands in the last round of the group stage, topping the group ahead of France. Unfortunately, they failed to shine again. Facing Turkey, a team they had previously thrashed 6-1, Austria conceded a goal within the first minute of the match. Merih Demiral scored just 57 seconds into the game, setting a record for the fastest goal in the knockout stage of the European Championship. Notably, Turkey also holds the record for the fastest goal in the World Cup knockout stage, with Hakan Şükür scoring just 11 seconds into the third-place play-off against South Korea in the 2002 World Cup.

Then, in the 59th minute, Demiral rose high between two defenders to score a header, doubling Turkey's lead. Although Austria pulled one back through Michael Gregoritsch in the 66th minute, Turkey’s goalkeeper Mert Günok made a world-class save in the dying seconds of injury time, denying Christoph Baumgartner’s close-range header, and Austria fell just 30 seconds short of an equalizer. When the final whistle blew, the Turkish players collapsed exhausted in the rain, giving fans a profound sense that these men had fought for their country's honor until the last moment. This was Turkey’s first-ever win in regular time in the knockout stages of a European Championship.

On the Austrian side, former Shanghai Port star Marko Arnautović’s performance was completely lackluster, earning him the lowest rating of the match at 6.3. Statistically, Arnautović had two shots with one on target, missed one good chance, lost all five duels, and committed three fouls. More telling than the statistics was his body language on the field, conveying a negative emotional value. His gestures, facial expressions, and slumped demeanor were disheartening. As the team captain, Arnautović failed to show the positive energy and effort needed, instead frequently displaying negative body language, squandering Austria's coordinated efforts.

After this match, the quarterfinals are set. The upper half of the bracket is a "group of death," featuring Spain versus Germany and Portugal versus France, with all four teams having won the European Championship before. In contrast, the lower half of the bracket is much lighter, with only the Netherlands having previously won the European Championship. The Netherlands will face Turkey, the tournament's biggest dark horse, while England will play against Switzerland.

Yamini003

I can't understand Austria's loss....

Ritu77

Indeed, there were too many accidents, so there's no point in dwelling on this!

Kapil334

Their elimination was quite surprising... what a pity...