Laimer also wants to cheer in Amsterdam
Austria's soccer team players celebrated a historic victory in Bucharest on Sunday, but their eyes were already on the tasks ahead. The 3: 1 against North Macedonia meant, in addition to the first ÖFB victory at a European football championship, a successful start to the current EURO. However, there is still a long way to go before the targeted goal, the knockout phase. The next step could be on Thursday (9 p.m. / live ORF 1) in Amsterdam against the Netherlands.
The “Oranjes” prevailed 3-2 in their opening match against Ukraine and showed a strong performance over long periods – as did Andrij Shevchenko's troops. “Two tough games are waiting for us, but we don't need to hide from either of them,” said Konrad Laimer.
The ÖFB selection had to work hard to win over the North Macedonians. “They were very low. It's always difficult against opponents like that these days, everyone can run and defend,” said Laimer. The Leipzig professional prepared Marko Arnautovic's goal well (“That was intuition”) and missed a big chance himself. “I could have scored a goal myself, but I've saved that for the next few games.”
Laimer and his colleagues had only been informed about the – sometimes surprising – line-up by team boss Franco Foda on the match day. “But there have always been signs that we could play in this formation. We have shown that we can definitely play five-a-side with this line-up,” said the Salzburg native. Andreas Ulmer was also satisfied with the system changeover. “We had good control over our opponents, didn't allow much and were really good in the rest of the defense.”
It never occurred to Ulmer that it could be a risk to put David Alaba in the national team's central defense for the first time in the European Championship opening match. “He played this role many times at Bayern, so no one thought it might not work.”
Xaver Schlager also struck warning tones in the general cheer. “We have to get better, it wasn't all optimal,” said the midfielder, adding that the game in the Bucharest Arena Nationala was “certainly not our best game. But we got off to a good start into the tournament, that's the most important thing.”
In contrast to Schlager, Ulmer and Laimer, Martin Hinteregger was already at the European Championship five years ago and had to accept a 2-0 draw against Hungary at the start of the finals. The defender was all the more relieved that they had a successful start this time. “Those who were there in 2016 felt the pressure extremely. We knew that if we wanted to play a role in the group, we had to beat North Macedonia. We did that, and we did it with confidence,” the Carinthian summed up.
