Because Kylian Mbappé turns up, world champion France achieves the first victory in the Nations League. The Austrians with coach Ralf Rangnick are suffering. You are now threatened with relegation from League A. The disillusionment, but also the admiration for the superstar is great.
After the defeat against soccer world champions France, Ralf Rangnick showed himself to be as sober as he was insightful. "I dare the thesis that if Mbappé had played for us, the game would have ended differently," said the coach of the Austrian national team: "But unfortunately we don't have Kylian Mbappé."
As a result, he and his select players no longer have their place in League A of the Nations League in their own hands. After the 0:2 against the French, who had to do without a large number of their top players, Austria occupies the last place in Group 1.
Bayern Munich's Marcel Sabitzer made a blunder in the Stade de France in Paris when building up the game, and top scorer Mbappé couldn't take that away. "You can't defend him alone, that's impossible, you can't defend everything against him overall," said Christopher Trimmel, man-marker and captain of Bundesliga leaders 1. FC Union Berlin.
The goal came eleven minutes after the restart. "The timing and the way we prepared it was very annoying," emphasized Rangnick: "You can't get the goal like that, no matter how good the opponent is." Nine minutes after Mbappé's goal, Olivier Giroud increased. "The only positive thing from the Austrians' point of view was the result," wrote the "Kleine Zeitung": "The 2-0 can be counted as a small success with a goal shot ratio of 22:4."
Rangnick and his team absolutely need a win on Sunday. Opponents Croatia, however, travel to Vienna as the group leaders and want to maintain their lead. In addition, the Austrians must hope for a blunder from France in Denmark. "We're playing Croatia at home, so of course we want to win, even if it's going to be a tough game," said Marko Arnautovic, who can then become Austria's record player with his 104th international match.
