Northern Ireland v Austria

FACTFILE AUSTRIA Words Liam Blackburn

INTERNATIONAL

» » Austria have been to seven World Cups, reaching the semi-finals twice in 1934 and 1954, yet they have only ever been to two European Championship finals and have never won a game in that tournament. » » In the 1930s Austria were one of the best sides in Europe thanks to forward Matthias Sindelar, who earned the nickname 'The Paper Man' due to his slight frame. He scored 27 goals in 44 games for his country and was voted Austria's sportsman of the century for the 20th century. » » Sindelar was a key part of Hugo Meisl's 'Wunderteam' that reached the last four at the 1934 World Cup on the back of a run in which they scored 101 goals in 31 games over three years. Hosts Italy beat them 1-0 in the semi- finals and went on to win the tournament. » » During their incredible run in the 1930s Austria beat Germany 6-0 in Berlin, Switzerland 8-1 in Basel, Italy 2-1 in Vienna and Scotland 5-0. Sindelar would score 16 goals in as many games. » » The Austrians won a silver medal at the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany but would not compete at a World Cup again until 1954 due to World War II. » » When Austria was once more separated from Germany after World War II, they reached the last four at the World Cup again. West Germany would claim a 6-1 victory but Austria beat defending champions Uruguay in the third place play-off to achieve what remains their best ever result at a World Cup. » » That 1950s team included Vienna-born Ernst Happel, who won 51 caps but is best remembered for his incredible success as a manager. » » He won the league title and a domestic cup in four countries - the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Austria - and won the European Cup with both Feyenoord and Hamburg. » » As manager of the Netherlands, Happel took a team to the World Cup final in 1978 but saw his men beaten by Argentina in extra time. The stadium where Northern Ireland played Austria last month is named after him.

» » Austria would score 17 goals in five games at the 1954 World Cup and they were involved in an incredible quarter-final against Switzerland which they won 7-5. The Swiss were 3-0 up after 19 minutes but Austria scored five goals in nine minutes to turn the game on its head. Theodor Wagner netted a hat-trick for the victorious Austrians. » » Despite qualifying for the 1958 World Cup, Austria did not win any of their three games and it would be 20 years before they made the globe's premier international tournament again. » » They made it to the second round in both 1978 and 1982. In 1982 Austria knew a slender loss to West Germany would be enough for both sides to advance out of the group at the expense of Algeria and West Germany won 1-0 in Gijon. As a result FIFA ensured all final group games would kick off simultaneously at future tournaments. » » Austria have only appeared at two World Cups since 1982 - in 1990 and 1998 - winning just one game in the first of those two tournaments. They were co-hosts for Euro 2008 with Switzerland but failed to win any of their three games, and they suffered a group stage exit at Euro 2016, too. » » Andreas Herzog, who was in charge of Israel when they lost to Northern Ireland in Belfast last month, is Austria's most capped player having appeared in 103 games between 1988 and 2003.

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