Werner Gregoritsch urged caution
After three victorious tests, the first hurdle on the way to the 2023 European Championship awaits Austria's U21 team kicker. The opponent on Tuesday (7.10 p.m. / live ORF Sport +) in Ried is Estonia. “It will be important for my team that they call up the good performance of previous games when it counts,” emphasized long-term team boss Werner Gregoritsch and did not reject the role of favorites. One will “certainly not make the mistake of underestimating the Estonians”.
During the game, it will be particularly important to show patience and to search the way towards the opposing goal with great speed, explained Gregoritsch. Captain Flavius Daniliuc agreed with the team principal. “Estonia will probably be down, wait what we do and then try to switch quickly,” said the central defender. “We have to be prepared for that and simply create opportunities on the offensive through our quality. We have the class for that.”
Austria last defeated Slovakia 2-1 on Friday, before that Saudi Arabia (10-0) and Poland (2-0) were more or less clearly defeated. The team, which has always been in a 3-4-2-1 system so far and is blessed on the offensive with talents such as Rapids Yusuf Demir, Salzburg's Junior Adamu and Romano Schmid from Werder Bremen, should definitely not lack self-confidence.
“I think that it worked very well, especially in the first half (against Slovakia; note), the understanding and the coordination was right. No matter who is set up by the team boss against Estonia in the end, we have a lot of quality and ours The goal is clearly to win the game, “said Schmid.
“We have to stay grounded, we haven't achieved anything yet. But, and I've been saying this since the start of this new team, a lot is possible with these players. Now the full focus is on getting us off to a good start in qualifying against Estonia lie down “, said Gregoritsch, who had to do without Emanuel Aiwu, Tobias Anselm and Franz Stolz due to injury. With Lion Schuster, Oliver Strunz (both Rapid) and Lukas Gütlbauer (SV Ried / FAC) three possible debutants joined the team.
