Austria’s national football team has to cope with two further cancellations for the European Championship qualifying game on Monday (6 p.m., live on ORF1) in Baku against Azerbaijan. Striker Michael Gregoritsch, who had already missed the game against Belgium on Friday (2:3), did not get fit in time after his calf problems. The attacker will leave the team camp on Sunday, as will central defender Kevin Danso, who injured his adductors. The ÖFB announced this on Saturday afternoon.
Danso started in the center of defense against the Belgians in place of the injured captain David Alaba. According to team boss Ralf Rangnick, the 25-year-old from RC Lens complained about problems in the adductor area in the first half and was replaced by debutant Samson Baidoo in the 66th minute. “The muscle has closed,” said Rangnick after the end of the game. Danso will therefore return to his club on Sunday, as will Gregoritsch, who missed four of the last five games with Freiburg.
The list of failures in the ÖFB team is now long. In addition to Alaba and Gregoritsch, Marko Arnautovic, Stefan Posch, Phillipp Mwene, Karim Onisiwo and Gernot Trauner were also missing against the Belgians. Marcel Sabitzer was only substituted on in the 79th minute after his adductor problems. The Dortmund midfielder then reduced the score to 2:3 with a penalty (84′). He took part in the substitute training of those players who were not in the starting line-up against Belgium on Saturday in Vienna.
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