BERLIN, GERMANY (SMI-GLOBAL-SPORTS-UEFA EURO-2024, JUNE 14-JULY 14, 2024)-World#25(FIFA) Austria defeats Poland 3-1, in 2nd match of Group D, grabbing its first 3-points and snapping a 30-year winless drought against the Polish in Berlin, Germany.

Both teams battled from the start to finish in search of a victory to keep its hope alive and advance to the knockout stage after losing their opening games to France and the Netherlands.

Austria opened the score first on a counter-attack through the left-side field corner when defender Phillipp Mwene centered the ball inside the penalty box
to Gernot Trauner who scored with hard header to the upper left corner out of the reach Poland's goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny for 1-0, Austria at 9' mark.

Poland found the equalizer at 30' mark when striker Krzysztof Piątek found a rebounding ball on the 6-yard box and kicked a bullet low shot that ended in the back of the net to even the game 1-1, at the half.


Both teams picked-up where they left-off in the second half with continuous back & forth counter-attacks barely missing the back of the net.

The Austrians kept the pressure and on another offensive attack through the left-side field, midfielder Alexander Press who entered from the bench in the second half passed the ball to middle just outside the 18' to Christoph Baumgartner who shot a hard strike to the opposite goal post to make it 2-1, Austria at 66' mark.

After both teams exchanged counter-attacks without any major danger, Austrian goalkeeper Patrick Pentz kicked a long pass to midfield finding
Marcel Sabitzer who ran inside the 18' with ball but was brought down inside the penalty box by Polish goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny for a penalty call.

The penalty shot was executed by Marko Arnautovic to make it 3-1, at 78' mark and sealed the win for the Austrians.

Article by Marcello Cutti II / Starlight Illustrated