Rangnick debuts beating Croatia

The debut of the German Ralf Rangnik as coach of Austria ended this Friday in Osijek with an unexpected 0-3 in favor of the Alpine team against Luka Modric’s Croatia, runner-up in the world, in a match of group 1 of League A of the Nations League.

Austria, in which Real Madrid player David Alaba was missing, was successful in attack and managed to hold off the first initial assault by a gray Croatia who lowered their arms in the second half.

Rangnick’s men came out to dominate the duel in a vibrant start to the game that was very close, marked by the impetus of the Austrian forward pressure and the tactical inaccuracies of the locals, who forced the team’s defenders to risk the ball out Croatian on several occasions.

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Possession shifted fleetingly to the boots of Brozovic, who connected between the lines with Kramaric to threaten on several occasions an Austrian team well planted defensively and only surpassed by a great opportunity that Pasalić failed to express after twenty minutes of the match.

Schlager was the most active midfielder for the Austrians in a chaotic first half, which Wöber and Sabitzer gradually turned in favor of Austria until Arnautovic scored with a powerful shot from outside the area to a pass from Onisiwo that Ivusic could not reach on time (40′).

Rangnick surprised at the break by removing the scorer from the goal by a Gregoristch who, shortly after the start of the second half, scored the second pass from Wöber in the face of the defensive passivity of the Balkan defense (53′).

Shortly after, Sabitzer’s goal came, a whiplash adjusted to the left post again from a pass from a fireproof Wöber against a much outmatched Croatia in the second half (56′).

Dalic also surprised for the worse, who paid dearly for the absence of Luka Modri ​​in the starting eleven.

The wizard from Zadar was cheered on by the home crowd as he came onto the pitch shortly after the third goal and helped a bit to improve his team’s face, especially in attacking creation.

Only Alaba was missing from the party, whom Rangnick reserved for the match against Denmark, a team that left them out of the direct pass to the World Cup in Qatar and which the Austrians will now face this Monday launched and wanting revenge.