June 11, 2016

The Austria national football team is the association football team that represents the country of Austria in international competition and is controlled by the Austrian Football Association.
Captain: Christian Fuchs
Manager: Marcel Koller
Arena/Stadium: Ernst-Happel-Stadion
Association: Austrian Football Association
Confederation: UEFA
Head coach: Marcel Koller

The halcyon days of Austrian football are in the distant past, with third place at the 1954 FIFA World Cup standing as a pinnacle of achievement. In all there have been seven World Cup appearances, the last of them at France ’98, but just one until now at the UEFA European Championship – as co-hosts in 2008 when they endured group stage elimination after losing to Germany. Their cross-border rivals proved a stumbling back again in qualification for both UEFA EURO 2012 and the 2014 World Cup, but under Swiss coach Marcel Koller the team cruised to France, winning nine of their ten qualifiers and drawing the other.

Austria national football team squad

Goalkeepers: Robert Almer (Austria Vienna), Heinz Lindner (Eintracht Frankfurt), Ramazan Oezcan (Ingolstadt).
Defenders: Aleksandar Dragovic (Dynamo Kiev), Christian Fuchs (Leicester City), Gyorgy Garics (Darmstadt), Martin Hinteregger (Borussia Moenchengladbach), Florian Klein (Stuttgart), Sebastian Prodl (Watford), Markus Suttner (Ingolstadt), Kevin Wimmer (Tottenham Hotspur).
Midfielders: David Alaba (Bayern Munich), Marko Arnautovic (Stoke City), Julian Baumgartlinger (Mainz), Martin Harnik (Stuttgart), Stefan Ilsanker (RB Leipzig), Jakob Jantscher (Lucerne), Zlatko Junuzovic (Werder Bremen), Marcel Sabitzer (RB Leipzig), Alessandro Schoepf (Schalke).
Forwards: Lukas Hinterseer (Ingolstadt), Rubin Okotie (1860 Munich), Marc Janko (Basel).

Best result: group stage 2008
Coach: Marcel Koller
Leading scorers: all-time – Toni Polster (44); current – Marc Janko (25)
Most appearances: all-time – Andreas Herzog (103); current – Christian Fuchs (72)
Association formed: 1904
Nickname: None
Where they play: Ernst-Happel-Stadion, Vienna

Austria national football team jersey

UEFA EURO 2008 remains Austria’s only tilt at the latter stages of the continental competition and it did not last long. In a tournament they co-hosted with Switzerland, Josef Hickersberger’s young team paid for inexperience despite some spirited performances. They lost the opening game to Croatia and after picking up a draw against Poland, bowed out after the group stage following a 1-0 defeat by Germany.

Until UEFA EURO 2016 Austria were never quite able to get across the line in qualifying, their 2012 campaign all too familiar when after a bright start they slipped to fourth. They came close, however, ending a point short of an automatic berth for the 1980 finals and twice defeats in the UK – 1-0 by Wales (1976) and 5-3 in Northern Ireland (1996) – ended their interest.