The final match of the round of 16 will take place at 2:00 a.m. on July 3 between Austria and Türkiye at Red Bull Arena (Leipzig) and will choose the last name to advance to the quarterfinals, ending a tense and dramatic period of EURO 2024.
Before entering the EURO 2024 Finals, the Austrian team was not highly rated. However, through 3 matches in the group stage, this team has left extremely strong impressions. Losing to France in the opening match, coach Ralf Rangnick and his team had 2 consecutive victories against Poland and the highly rated team, the Netherlands, thereby rising to the top of Group D, ranked above the championship candidate, the French team, with 1 point more. The important thing is that in this position, the Black Eagles avoided the "death" bracket.
This is the fourth time Austria has participated in the knockout stages of a major football tournament, previously in the 1934 World Cup, 1954 World Cup and EURO 2020. This time, the Austrian team hopes to reach the quarter-finals of a European football tournament for the first time in history. This is a commendable achievement for coach Ralf Rangnick and his team.
Austria is becoming an interesting phenomenon in the tournament. They are facing a historic opportunity when their opponent is only a not-so-strong Türkiye. Coach Rangnick's team is playing quite good and effective attack. A strong attacking style is the weapon for the Austrian team to face Türkiye.
At the end of the group stage, Austria scored 6 goals (1 own goal by Donyell Malen of the Netherlands). This is one of the teams with the best scoring efficiency at EURO this year. Notably, Austria's goals were scored by 5 different players spread across 3 lines.
This is Austria's first match against Türkiye at a major tournament. Austria have won two of their last three meetings in all competitions against the Turkish side, including a 6-1 victory in March this year.
Austria are playing very well, winning 9/13 matches since the beginning of 2023 (drawing 2 and losing 2). In addition to impressive victories against the Netherlands and Türkiye, they also defeated Germany, Slovakia and Serbia during this time.
As for Türkiye, the team was considered to be inferior to big names like Portugal or the Czech Republic in Group F. However, after a 0-3 defeat to Portugal, they had 2 victories against Georgia and the Czech Republic, coach Vincenzo Montella and his team entered the round of 16 with second place in the group and only behind Portugal in terms of additional index.
Türkiye has a squad of quality players under coach Vincenzo Montella. Demiral, Kahvec, Yilmaz and young talent Guler. Thanks to the brilliance of these "young" factors, Türkiye is achieving success at this EURO.
However, Türkiye have yet to win a knockout match after 120 minutes, beating Croatia on penalties in the quarter-finals of EURO 2008 before losing 3-2 to Germany in the last four.
With good form after the group stage, the Austrian team is considered to be better than Türkiye in this competition.
Expected starting lineup of both teams
Shirt:Pentz, Posch, Danso, Lienhart, Mwene, Seiwald, Laimer Danso, Baumgartner, Sabitzer, Gregoritsch
Türkiye:Gunok, Muldur, Demiral, Bardakci, Kadioglu, Ozcan, Kahveci, Guler, Kokcu, Yildiz, Yilmaz
EURO 2024 Round of 16 schedule:
23:00 July 2: Romania - Netherlands
2 days 3/7: Austria - Türkiye