Austria coach Ralf Rangnick praised his courageous team who topped Group D with a surprise 3-2 win over the Netherlands on Tuesday and reached the Euro 2024 knockouts.

“If you placed a bet on the outcome today (Tuesday), you would be a very rich man or woman,” he told a press conference. “We got rewarded for this very courageous and energetic match my players showed.”

Austria dominated the game from the start with an initial 80 per cent of possession, the 65-year-old German noted.

He said he made changes from the 3-1 win over Poland in the last match to avoid suspensions for a second booking, especially for midfielders Konrad Laimer and Christoph Baumgartner.

Austria will next play on Tuesday, their last-16 match against the runners-up in Group F in Leipzig where he was manager of the Bundesliga side for several years.

“We have to take it step by step,” he said about the prospects of moving on in the tournament.

Marcel Sabitzer, whose strike 10 minutes from time took Austria to the top, said: “If you beat the Netherlands and win the group, then you can’t be that bad. For us, the most important thing was to advance, and we managed that. Now we need to calm down, clear our heads and then keep attacking.”

Austria topped the group on six points, with France second on five after a 1-1 draw with Poland and the Netherlands third on four. The Dutch advanced as one of the four best third-placed finishers.

Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman held himself “ultimately responsible”.

“I put this team together because I thought it was the best. But that wasn’t the case,” he said after the loss, following goals by Cody Gakpo and Memphis Depay. “I’m also disappointed in myself that we’re starting (games) like this. I thought the beginning was a poor performance, but not the entire match. We knew that they play with high backs, so we indicated: close that passing line. Then the back zone must hold. But if one or the other doesn’t happen, this is what you get,” he rued.

Reuters