Ralf Rangnick has to accept the second defeat in his fourth game as Austria’s national soccer coach, against dominant Danes the ÖFB selection in the Nations League has little chance. Bottom of the table remains France.
Football world champion France no longer has a chance of successfully defending its title in the Nations League. In Group A1, the team coached by Didier Deschamps can no longer achieve the group victory necessary for participation in the finals after the 0:1 (0:1) home defeat in the renewed edition of the World Cup final against Croatia as they are still bottom of the table without a win.
Two rounds before the end of the group games, Denmark has the best chance of doing so, after beating Austria 2-0 (2-0) with German national coach Ralf Rangnick, they are two points ahead of Croatia. Austria is also three more points behind from the race.
France’s fans hoped in vain for their tricolor team to react defiantly after the first half of the preliminary round without a win. After just five minutes, Croatia’s midfield star Luka Modric took the lead and slowed down the home side’s Christopher Nkunku from DFB Cup winners RB Leipzig. After the break, Deschamps sent on Benjamin Pavard and Kingsley Coman from German champions Bayern Munich as well as star striker Antoine Griezmann, but the world champions’ efforts to avoid the second defeat were unsuccessful until the final whistle.
Austria, meanwhile, failed to confirm their previous dismal 1-1 win against France as they missed revenge for a 2-1 home defeat in the first leg in Copenhagen. The Danes managed to make amends with goals from Wolfsburg Bundesliga pro Jonas Wind (21st) and Anders Skov Olsen (37th) just four days after the 0-1 home defeat against Croatia. Rangnick’s team, with Munich’s Marcel Sabitzer and Stuttgart’s Sasa Kalajdzic in the starting line-up, only seldom posed a goal threat and proved to be unstable again under the direction of their new coach.
