Nations League: Ralf Rangnick's Austrians are relegated – France saves

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Austria's coach Ralf Rangnick in rows of his players before the game against Croatia

Photo: Christian Hofer/Getty Images

The German soccer coach Ralf Rangnick has been relegated to League B of the Nations League with the Austrian national team.

Real Madrid's Luka Modrić put the guests in Vienna ahead after six minutes in the 1: 3 (1: 1) against vice world champion Croatia.

Christoph Baumgartner from 1899 Hoffenheim equalized three minutes later.

After the change of sides, Marko Livaja (69th) and Dejan Lovren (72nd) made the decision.

With just one win in six games, the Rangnick team led by captain David Alaba had as few successes as most recently under Karel Brückner (2008/09).

"In the end it's a very disappointing result," said Rangnick.

After a few changes and adjustments, the 64-year-old was also self-critical: "In retrospect, I probably wouldn't do it that way anymore, but afterwards you're always smarter."

Ralf Rangnick had switched to the coaching position in Austria after his engagement as interim coach at Manchester United for the hapless Franco Foda.

With Foda, the Austrians had missed the World Cup qualification, Ragnick had been brought in to secure the European Championship qualification for 2024.

This will start next year.

France out of shape, Netherlands on target

World champion France was only able to avert relegation from the Nations League with support.

The team of national coach Didier Deschamps lost 0:2 (0:2) in Denmark at the end of group 1 on Sunday, but benefited from the Croatians' victory against Austria.

As a result, Croatia reached the semi-finals (June 14/15, 2023) as the group first.

As in the first leg defeat against Denmark (1:2), the disappointing French had big problems with the European Championship semi-finalists and showed themselves to be out of shape again just under two months before the start of the World Cup.

Kasper Dolberg (34th) and Andreas Skov Olsen (39th) scored for the hosts to win.

Nevertheless, Deschamps was relaxed: "It's a young French team that doesn't have the experience at a high level.

We shouldn't worry."

In Group 4, coach Louis van Gaal's Netherlands secured first place with a 1-0 (0-0) win over Belgium and are in the finals of the Nations League.

Virgil van Dijk scored for Oranje (73').

After the 0-1 (0-0) against Poland, Wales has to play in League B in the upcoming Nations League season.

Kuntz' Turkey loses at the football dwarf

The German ex-U21 national coach Stefan Kuntz made a fool of himself with Turkey in the Faroe Islands.

At the end of Group C, the team of the former Bundesliga top scorer lost 1: 2 (0: 0) to football outsiders in Tórshavn on Sunday, but had already secured promotion to League B as group winners.

Viljormur Davidsen (51') and Jóan Edmundsson (59') scored for the hosts.

The connection by Serdar Gürler (89th) came too late.

Turkey also only managed a 3:3 draw against Luxembourg on Thursday.

see/dpa