Austria's women: Duel against the Netherlands - Surprise as an underdog!

Austria's women: Duel against the Netherlands - Surprise as an underdog!

Almelo, Niederlande - On Friday, April 3, 2025, Austria's women's football team will take the challenge against the Netherlands as part of the Nations League. The game takes place at 8:00 p.m. in the ASITO Stadion in Almelo, where at least 9,000 fans are expected. The Dutch women who go into the duel as favorites are in group A1 a point before Austria.

ÖFB team boss Alexander Schriebl emphasizes the high priority that women's football enjoys in the Netherlands. He emphasizes that the intensity and pressing in the game against the Dutch will be of great importance. This is peppered with key players like Lineth Beerensteyn von Wolfsburg and Vivianne Miedema by Manchester City, who have already celebrated great success in their clubs. Beerensteyn has scored three goals in the last games, while Austria's team wants to go into the match after an intensive 1: 4 against Germany in the past game.

Return of the key players

A positive news for the Austrian team is the return of Sarah Zadrazil after an injury that is considered enormously important for the success of the team. Maria Plattner could also play an important role in the game. The final list will be set on Thursday evening after the final training session, which brings excitement into the upcoming game. So far, Austria has only played two competitive games against the Dutch and was able to win a victory, a draw and five defeats. Despite this statistics, Austria will again be in the outsider role, similar to its successful 2017.

In this Europe's football history, Austria took a key position in 2017 by reaching the semi -finals and taking third place. They defeated Spain in the quarterfinals in the penalty shootout after the regular season ended in a 0-0. These successes contributed to making women's football more popular in Austria, as the planning of the ÖFB also shows, winning more girls and women for the sport.

women's football in the upswing

In recent years, women's football has developed significantly worldwide, despite existing challenges. According to the FIFA, there are already 181 out of 211 member associations that are led in the FIFA/Coca-Cola Worldruptcy list of women. This progress was supported by various initiatives, such as the FIFA women's football strategy, which was introduced in 2018. This program offers extensive resources to promote women's football at the national level and contributes to increasing the number of players. The focus is on equality in sports, with the aim of increasing the number of girls and women who play football by 2026.

The overall development of women's football shows that there are also high expectations of future services of the national team in Austria. With a squad that includes several players who were already there at the 2017 European Championship, and an experienced team of coaching under Schriebl, Austria can hope for a promising future in women's football.

More Details can be found in different sources, including the representations of Laola1 on EM 2017 at Sport Austria and the comprehensive consideration of global developments in women's football from fifa