Austria's football team disappointed: World Cup qualification in danger!

Austria's football team disappointed: World Cup qualification in danger!

Wien, Österreich - The Austrian national football team suffered a bitter setback on March 24, 2025 with the 0-2 defeat in the Nations League play-off against Serbia. This defeat is regarded by team boss Ralf Rangnick as a warning for the upcoming World Cup qualification. Despite this disappointment, Rangnick remains optimistic and firmly believes that the ÖFB selection for the 2026 World Cup can qualify in North America.

In its first big tournament, the team has important lessons to learn. Rangnick emphasizes the urgency of the World Cup qualification, since many players in the current rows in 1998, when Austria was recently participating in a World Cup, were not yet born. The World Cup qualification may be the last opportunity for some players to be able to participate in such a tournament.

Missing regular players

In the defeat against Serbia, the team lacked nine potential regular players, including prominent names such as David Alaba and Marko Arnautovic. Sasa Kalajdzic, Michael Svoboda and Andreas Weimann also had to fit due to injury. Despite the higher possession of the ball, Austria was unable to score goals, and Serbia's team boss Dragan Stojkovic noted that the Austrian team controlled the game, which Rangnick could not completely share.

A problem that Rangnick has identified is the selection of the goalkeeper while not seeing the quality of the goalkeepers. In the last 15 games, Austria only played twice without conceding a goal. Rangnick is convinced that the team, when all players are fit, has the opportunity to drive to the World Cup as a group winner.

draw of the World Cup qualification

The groups for European qualifications for the 2026 World Cup will be drawn in Zurich next Friday afternoon. The World Cup will take place in the USA, Canada and Mexico from June 11 to July 19, 2026 and will be broadcast live on skysport.de from 11:45 a.m. Austria belongs to the set teams and is in pot 1 together with other football nations such as Germany, France and Spain. The draw is carried out in different pots, with groups A to F consisting of four and g to l.

Austria is faced with a crucial phase and will have to prove itself in the coming weeks and months in order to realize the dream of participating in the 2026 World Cup. As Rangnick emphasizes, the team can master the challenges so that there is a chance of a successful qualification as long as the injured people return in time.

More details and the game plans of the qualification will be published on Friday evening, and the “lottery” such as Ariane Hingst and Fernando Llorente are also involved who carry out the drawing process.