Austria's path to the World Cup: Rangnick wants to score with a new strategy!

Austria's path to the World Cup: Rangnick wants to score with a new strategy!

On June 6, 2025, the Austrian national team starts at 8:45 p.m. in the Vienna Ernst Happel Stadium in the World Cup qualification against Romania. Team boss Ralf Rangnick showed a confidence at the final press conference and emphasized that the ÖFB team is ready to achieve the first home win in this qualification round. Stefan Posch expressed the wish to go to the World Cup after the Austrian national team was last at a World Cup finals in 1998.

Austria has always failed in the last six World Cup qualifications and is now pursuing the goal of taking part in a world championship again after more than 25 years. According to Rangnick, the team has to "do a little different this time" to achieve this goal. During the training week in Seefeld, the focus was on the game structure in order to be able to exist against the strong Romanian team, which in the world rankings in the 38th place.

The list against Romania

The team is led by Patrick Pentz in goal, while the chain of four consists of Stefan Posch, Philipp Lienhart, Kevin Danso and Philipp Mwene. Konrad Laimer and Nicolas Seiwald are ready in midfield, while the offensive series probably includes Romano Schmid, Christoph Baumgartner and Marcel Sabitzer. Marko Arnautovic will run as a striker. Although Xaver Schlager is not yet fit for the starting eleven, it could be used in the final minutes.

Rangnick has great confidence in Arnautovic, despite the recently lost Champions League final. This optimism is shared by the players who emphasize that the evaluation of opportunities in past games was a weak point. The team agreed that more goals have to be scored to secure the success in qualification.

a claim to group victory

Austria was drawn from pot 1 into group H, in which, in addition to Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cyprus and San Marino also play. The main goal of the ÖFB-Elf in this qualification is the group victory for direct World Cup participation, since a group of group would have to go to the playoffs. The prelude to Romania is considered crucial for further qualifications.

The current table shows Bosnia-Herzegovina in the first place with 6 points, followed by Romania and Cyprus, each of which has 3 points on their account. So far, Austria is pointless. Ralf Rangnick sees the positive development in the team since taking office and speaks of a good atmosphere and euphoria that the team flows through in the run -up to the game.

With a successful start on Saturday, Austria could take an important step towards a successful World Cup qualification. The pressure is high, but Rangnick is convinced that if she can call up her performance, his team can beat every opponent.

Laola1 reports that rangnick of the last WM- qualifications analyzed and wants to change something. today reports of the good atmosphere in the team and the euphoria since Rangnick's start of office. Further information on the qualification offers Fussball-wm.Pro on the ÖFB-Elf and its objective for the World Cup 2026.