Tteam boss Ralf Rangnick has been relegated from the A-class with the Austrian national football team in the Nations League. The long-time Bundesliga coach finally saw a 1:3 (1:1) defeat against vice world champions Croatia, which sealed the last place in group A1.
The Croatians advanced to the finals in June as leaders. Despite the 2-0 (2-0) win against world champions and defending champions France, Denmark had to settle for second place. The Netherlands also reached the final four with a 1-0 (0-0) win over neighboring Belgium, the leaders in Group A4. In the parallel game, Poland won 1-0 (0-0) in Wales, which, like Austria, is relegated to the ex-Munich Robert Lewandowski.
In the first leg on June 3rd, Rangnick started his engagement in Austria with a 3-0 win in Croatia. Since then, however, there has been no victory – and now the return to the B-League.
Early leadership of the Croats
Captain Luka Modric gave the Croatians an early lead in front of 42,000 spectators at the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna (6th). But just three minutes later, Hoffenheim’s Christoph Baumgartner equalized with a header.
The goalscorer (24th) missed a top-class chance for the Austrian lead before the break, as did record national player Marko Arnautovic (45th), who passed Andreas Herzog in his 104th game. Substitute Marko Livaja (69′) and Dejan Lovren (72′) scored at the other end.
In the parking lot in Copenhagen, Kasper Dolberg used a mistake made by Bayern defender Dayot Upamecano to make it 1-0 for the hosts (34′). Andreas Skov Olsen increased (39th) before the break. After the restart, superstar Kylian Mbappe failed with three big chances.
Belgium, with former French striker Thierry Henry replacing the suspended Roberto Martinez on the touchline, would have needed to win by three goals to pass Oranje. But the Red Devils remained too harmless. Virgil van Dijk scored the winning goal (73rd) for the Netherlands.
Wales are also relegated
Wales around star striker Gareth Bale did not win in the sixth game either, relegation is the consequence. In a balanced game, the Welshman Daniel James missed the best chance in the first half after a counterattack (32′), Karol Swiderski scored the winning goal (58′) for the Poles after strong preliminary work from Lewandowski.
Even before the 1:2 (0:0) in the Faroe Islands, coach Stefan Kuntz had led the Turkish national team back to the B league. Kazakhstan’s promotion to the second Nations League class was also certain before the 0: 3 (0: 0) in Azerbaijan.
Latvia has risen to the C-League thanks to the 1-1 (0-0) win in Andorra, while the 2-0 (0-0) win against Liechtenstein was not enough for Moldova, who were tied on points.
