ÖFB national team fails in Serbia: Rangnick speaks of absurd defeat!

ÖFB national team fails in Serbia: Rangnick speaks of absurd defeat!

Serbien, Land - The ÖFB team has made a failed start to the new international year. On March 23, 2025, the second leg in Serbia ended with a defeat of 0: 2. This follows a 1: 1 in the playoff first leg, which means that Austria remains in the UEFA Nations League on the second-class level. Team boss Ralf Rangnick commented after the game and described the result as "absurd".

The coach pointed out that his team had a possession of 75 percent up to the red card, which seemed to be a positive sign of their game strategy. Despite this superiority, the team failed to win the game. Marko Arnautovic, the captain, emphasized that the team did not deserve to lose. His words underlined the disappointment and frustration after the game.

Opportunity evaluation and wrong decisions

Florian Grillitsch and Arnautovic criticized the defective evaluation of opportunities for the team. In the second leg, the Serbs had more goal shots (13:12) and a higher Expected Goals (XG) value of 1.44 to 1.15. Rangnick therefore also recognized failures in the first leg where the team failed to take the lead. Grillitsch called for greater efficiency in the last third, while Arnautovic admitted his own mistakes in the evaluation of opportunities.

Gernot Trauner described the mood in the cabin as disappointed after the game. Nevertheless, Arnautovic also saw positive aspects and emphasized the future of the team, which indicates the will to overcome the weaknesses shown and to appear more in future encounters.

Nations League: Current developments

In the UEFA Nations League, the quarter -finals are in full swing. After an impressive 5-2 win against Denmark, Portugal was in the semi-finals. Gonçalo Ramos scored the decisive goal in the 115th minute. There were also exciting developments in other games: Germany led 3-0 against Italy at halftime, but the game ended 3: 3. In the duel between Spain and the Netherlands, the regular playing time ended 2-2 before the Spaniards scored the decisive goal in extra time.

These results show that the UEFA Nations League is an extremely competitive tournament in which the teams do not give anything. The next games promise just as much excitement and could offer new starting points for the ÖFB to learn from the defeat against Serbia.

The coming months will be crucial to see whether Austria is able to fight out of the current crisis and attack again in the next Nations League season.