Ukraine 0-1 Austria: Baumgartner the National Hero

Ukraine played Austria in their final game of the UEFA Euro 2020 group stages in Budapest, Hungary.

With the Netherlands winning the group, a win or a draw would have been enough for Ukraine to qualify while Austria had to win to finish second.

David Alaba put in a dangerous cross in the 16^th minute but Aleksandar Dragović completely missed the ball, which could have given Austria the lead.

However, from a corner, Christoph Baumgartner stuck his leg out to score in the 19^th minute.

Ukraine believed they had scored the equaliser, but luck was not on their side. In the 28^th minute, Mykola Shaparenko’s shot was pushed out by the Austrian goalkeeper and almost went to Andriy Yarmolenko but the ball did not land near him.

Konrad Laimer’s curling shot in the 27^th minute was punched away by Heorhiy Bushchan to keep the game at a one-goal margin.

Austria’s goal scorer Baumgartner was forced off due to a head collision but only after playing an extra couple of minutes. His replacement, Alessandro Schöpf, crossed the ball towards Marko Arnautović who was in front of the goal but missed the golden chance to double Austria’s lead in the 42^nd minute.

The first half ended with Austria taking the initiative and Ukraine lacking the urgency to make the Austrian goalkeeper working harder.

The second half was game management by the Austria side by controlling the flow of the game. By the hour-mark, Stefan Lainer almost scored an own goal after directing a header from a free kick towards his own net.

Roman Yaremchuk almost saved Ukraine’s tournament in the 87^th minute with a shot from an angle but it did not have enough curl to sneak into the inside of the goal.

The game ended with Austria for the first time in their history reaching the knockout phase of the European championship while Ukraine has to wait to see if they had finished as one of the best 3^rd place teams.

Source of Image: UEFA Euro 2020 via Twitter