Rangnick: “The game really annoys me”

Austria’s team boss Ralf Rangnick did not expect the 1-1 draw in the international football test match against the Republic of Moldova in Linz to be the same. “The game really annoys me, especially the performance in the first half. But you have to get over it quickly. We also put in an outstanding performance in the win over Italy a few days after the 1-0 win against Andorra.”

The course of the match then forced the coach to improvise: “We made different changes than planned, it was better at the beginning of the second half, but still not enough in the end.” The early 0:1 after a mistake by goalie Daniel Bachmann was also the sticking point for Rangnick. “Of course that was a big mistake, and practically an own goal. But it wasn’t just the goalkeeper, Kevin Danso’s back pass was also bad. We didn’t make it any easier for ourselves. The opponent played similarly to Andorra, which is not subject to entertainment tax. We played way too much across the board, there were too many safety passes.”

Rangnick also didn’t speak well of the English referee Robert Jones. “I’m also used to other referees in England and at the end of the game I politely asked the fourth official something. He immediately passed it on to Jones, who had nothing better to do than give me a yellow card. That was the first of my coaching career. He didn’t want to know anything about British humor.”

For the European Championship qualifying match on Tuesday in Sweden, the main thing was the realization that nobody forced themselves outside the regular formation. “I was hoping that one or two players would make it even more difficult for me, but that wasn’t the case. After the break we had more power to score with the substitutions and also more passing quality. We already knew that Alaba and Arnautovic were players we absolutely needed. That’s why I especially wanted to rest Alaba for the Sweden game. It was necessary and important to bring them then.”

Rangnick, who also brought all the substitute players into the dressing room from the warm-up, did not reveal how loud he had become during the break. “Above all, we announced that there would be four substitutions, even though that meant we only had one substitution left for the second half, and showed two scenes from the first half how not to do it.”

“Won’t lose any sleep”

Bachmann calmly analyzed his mistake: “Without mistakes there would be no goals. I won’t lose any sleep over this”said the Viennese. Captain David Alaba was dissatisfied after his 102nd international match: “We all imagined it differently. Against Sweden I expect a different game, a different attitude and intensity.” It will be needed too.