Defeat at the Olympiastadion against a rampant Austrian side – coupled with a stalemate between France and the Netherlands in Leipzig – confirms that Poland will not reach the knockout stages of EURO2024.
Poland and Austria both suffered losses in their opening games but Ralf Rangnick’s side arrived in Berlin with a greater sense of motivation than their opponents, and reaped the rewards for a dominant showing.
As it happened
Narrowly defeated by France in their EURO2024 opener, Austria wasted no time taking the lead in the capital against a Poland side that was lucky to escape Hamburg having lost by just a single goal.
Gernot Trauner needed less than ten minutes to smash home a header, with Philipp Mwene’s remarkably long throw-in met beautifully by the Feyenoord forward at the near post.
But Poland soon drew level, with Krzysztof Piątek’s equaliser coming as the clock hit thirty minutes. The initial effort from a Piotr Zieliński was blocked, but the Başakşehir forward danced past Trauner inside the box and slotted past Patrick Pentz to restore parity for Poland.
Robert Lewandowski returned from injury on the hour mark, but even the nation’s finest export could not salvage a win for Michał Probierz’s side – and instead Austria began to gain a foothold on the match, seizing the lead through Christoph Baumgartner.
It was a moment of magic: Alexander Prass played a ball forwards, expertly dummied by Marko Arnautović to allow Baumgartner to latch on and steer past Szczęsny from the edge of the penalty area.
The rout was not done there though, with Rangnick’s Austria adding a third goal to their tally within the final fifteen minutes of the match after Marcel Sabitzer was fouled by the goalkeeper. Arnautović stepped up to the spot, dispatching past Szczęsny with ease to hand his side their first win of EURO2024.
Poland will face France in Dortmund on Tuesday, with that match coming as nothing more than a dead rubber clash for Michał Probierz and his men.
You’ll be able to cover that clash, and all other EURO2024 fixtures, right here on FromTheSpot.
The lineups
POL: Szczęsny; Kiwior, Dawidowicz, Bednarek; Zalewski, Piotrowski, Slisz, Zieliński, Frankowski; Buksa, Piątek
AUT: Pentz; Mwene, Lienhart, Trauner, Posch; Grillitsch, Seiwald; Sabitzer, Laimer, Baumgartner; Arnautović
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