Austria before its World Cup dreams: home game against Bosnia decides everything!

Austria before its World Cup dreams: home game against Bosnia decides everything!

A crucial game is scheduled for the Austrian national football team on November 19, 2025. The team will host Bosnia-Herzegovina at the Ernst Happel Stadium to secure participation in the 2026 FIFA World Cup. A single point would be enough to qualify for a major tournament for the first time since 1998, reports vol.at.

The game will be broadcast live on ServusTV and the stadium will be filled to capacity. Team boss Ralf Rangnick emphasizes the importance of this game and emphasizes the targeted preparation for the opponent. The team also received motivational words from Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen, who attended training before the game. Marko Arnautovic described the upcoming duel as the “most important and biggest” of his career and is optimistic about the support of the fans in the sold-out stadium.

The game and the lineup

The deployment of captain David Alaba, who completed parts of the training but has not yet been given a definitive confirmation, remains unclear. The starting position is promising: Austria is currently leading the qualifying group by two points over Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Austria has presented itself strongly in the qualification so far. During the game against Bosnia-Herzegovina, which ended 1-1, Michael Gregoritsch scored the decisive equalizer in the 77th minute after Bosnia-Herzegovina had taken the lead through an early goal from Haris Tabakovic in the 12th minute. Thanks to this result, Austria qualified directly for the World Cup, while Bosnia-Herzegovina has to go to the playoffs zdf.de.

Looking ahead to the 2026 World Cup

The 2026 World Cup will take place in North America and will be held with 48 teams for the first time. A total of 16 European countries will take part, of which the group winner will qualify directly for the World Cup, while the group runners-up will have to compete against the best Nations League teams in the playoffs. The group draw for the tournament will take place on December 5, 2025. The World Cup begins on June 11, 2026 and ends with the final on July 19, 2026 in New York. The current status of qualification shows that only two match days remain to be completed in November 2025, reports fussball-wm.pro.

This could be a historic evening for Austria. All eyes are on the highlights of a game with more than just a point on the line.