Austria's team before the National League final: Missing key players!

Austria's team before the National League final: Missing key players!

Austria's national soccer team faces a major challenge in the decisive second leg of the Nation League play-offs against Serbia. On Sunday, March 23, the team around team boss Ralf Rangnick will have to compete without the two key players Christoph Baumgartner and Alexander Prass. While Baumgartner fails with a concussion from the first leg in Vienna (1-1), Prass is not fit in time due to an ankle injury, like oe24.at . Both players have already left the team camp.

The team is weakly weakened, since the blocked Konrad Laimer is also missing and cannot play service providers such as Marcel Sabitzer, Stefan Posch, Kevin Danso and Maximilian Wöber either. However, Ranigck found a replacement for Prass: Jonas Auer from Rapid Vienna was nominated. The team leader is optimistic and says that there is "a little hope" to secure the space in the league A of the Nations League. "We have to think 'out of the box'," emphasized Rangnick, according to KleineZeitung.at . It remains to be seen whether a system adjustment is necessary, because the defensive could reorganize with Stefan Lainer, Philipp Lienhart, David Alaba and Philipp Mwene.

Another interesting aspect is the competition for the place in the goal between Patrick Pentz and Alexander Schlager. Rangnick describes the two as at a similar level of performance, which makes the decision for the second leg in Belgrade complicated. It is possible that Rangnick will vary the tactical line -up to compensate for the new situation while he also uses the strengths of his players. The focus is also on the offensive options, because Rangnick could try to set a sign with a double tip from Michael Gregoritsch and Marko Arnautovic. The game takes place in the Rajko MiTić stadium and could decide on the rise of Austria to the A group.