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The best Austrian: soon-to-be-Real Madrid professional David Alaba
Photo: TF-Images / Getty Images
Austria: The best could become the weak point
Austria is traveling to the European Championship with so many excellent footballers (at 6 p.m. against North Macedonia, live ticker SPIEGEL.de; TV: ARD; Stream: MagentaTV) than it has been for a long time: there are 21 players from the German Bundesliga in the squad, many of them are top performers at ambitious clubs. In the central midfield alone, Marcel Sabitzer, Konrad Laimer and Xaver Schlager are fighting for the regular places, with Florian Grillitsch and Julian Baumgartlinger standing behind them as solid alternatives.
But all this luxury becomes a problem for Franco Foda's team before the tournament.
Because: Almost traditionally, the country's only world star, long-term Munich and soon-to-be-Madrid player, David Alaba, also plays in midfield.
The strongest is Alaba, which is known from club football, but on the left in the back or in central defense.
So the best individualist in the squad threatens to become a weak point.
Ex-professional Alfred Tatar disguised Alaba after a 4-0 defeat against Denmark in March, not unjustly: The 28-year-old is "not a creative mind", he would rather inhibit the Austrian offensive game.
Previously, Alaba went down as a left winger.
Should Alaba move back into the back four and make room for a real offensive, Austria can play a good role in the group.
If he is to decide the game for better or for worse, Austria will probably only be part of the tournament for a short time.
North Macedonia: It's getting thin in defense
Anyone who talks about North Macedonia is talking about Goran Pandev.
The 37-year-old storm veteran won the Champions League eleven years ago with Inter Milan, now he has led his country to the first European Championship participation in the association's history.
In March he took the lead in the sensational North Macedonian victory against the DFB-Elf, national team colleague Marjan Radeski is even under contract with the professional team of the »Akademija Pandev«, founded by the old star.
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Old hand Goran Pandev
Photo: ROBERT ATANASOVSKI / AFP
But is this one-man show enough - and is it even one? As 62nd in the world rankings, the North Macedonians are ranked the lowest of all EM teams, the individual quality is thin, especially in defense. National coach Igor Angelovski makes do with a five-man chain and a three-man block in the central midfield in front of it for nothing: If you want to play solid underdog football, you need a lot of legs behind the ball.
Even so, North Macedonia is more than just a collection of hardworking workers. In the central midfield, free-kick specialist Enis Bardhi, who has established himself at Levante in the Spanish Primera División, and Naples' young creative player Eljif Elmas bring an unpredictable note to the North Macedonian game, on the wings the attacking full-backs Ezgjan Alioski and Stefan Ristovski bring the pace with them the storm around the technically strong sneak Pandev is missing. A North Macedonian advance would be a sensation - but the team can trip a favorite over 90 minutes.