European Championship 2008 - Austria

AustriaAustria are currently ranked 88 in the Fifa World Rankings, but home advantage for the competition often sees the hosting nation produce their best.

Recent form is not encouraging with a single victory in a dozen or so games, however as they haven't had to qualify none of these games have been competitive.

Austria have qualified as hosts for the tournament which has seen them reach the final stages of the tournament for the first time in their history and the final stages of any tournament since the 1998 World Cup.

Austria will need to improve sharply to play any sort of hand in the Euro 2008 finals, however as Denmark and Greece have shown in recent history - the tournament is wide open. View Odds

The Austrian coach is Josef Hickersberger One of the most successful players and coaches in Austrian history and he will need to find something from his players leading up to the 2008 finals.


Player To Watch - Rene Aufhauser
Rene Aufhauser (Austria)Rene Aufhauser is a key man for Austria in midfield with the most amount of caps and plays his football in Austria and does a very important defensive role for his country and ocassionally turns up to put the ball in the back of the net.

No. Player Date of Birth Caps Goals Position
Euro 2008 Squad
1 Alex Maninger 04/06/1977 (31) 0 0 Goalkeeper
21 Jurgen Macho 24/08/1977 (30) 14 0 Goalkeeper
23 Ramazan Ozcan 28/06/1984 (23) 0 0 Goalkeeper
12 Ronald Gercaliu 12/02/1982 (26) 11 0 Defender
17 Martin Hiden 11/02/1973 (35) 49 1 Defender
13 Markus Katzer 11/12/1979 (28) 11 0 Defender
16 Jurgen Patocka 30/07/1977 (30) 2 0 Defender
4 Emanuel Pogatetz 16/01/1983 (25) 27 1 Defender
15 Sebastian Prodl 21/06/1987 (20) 10 2 Defender
11 Umit Korkmaz 17/09/1985 (22) 2 0 Defender
2 Joachim Standfest 01/01/1970 (38) 30 2 Defender
3 Martin Stranzl 01/01/1970 (38) 45 2 Defender
6 Rene Aufhauser 01/01/1970 (38) 51 11 Midfielder
5 Christian Fuchs 01/01/1970 (38) 17 0 Midfielder
14 Gyorgy Garics 08/09/1984 (23) 12 1 Midfielder
10 Andreas Ivanschitz 15/10/1983 (24) 39 5 Midfielder
8 Christoph Leitgeb 14/04/1985 (23) 19 0 Midfielder
19 Jurgen Samuel 08/09/1964 (43) 11 0 Midfielder
7 Ivica Vastic 29/09/1969 (38) 48 13 Midfielder
20 Martin Harnik 10/06/1987 (20) 8 2 Forward
22 Erwin Hoffer 14/04/1987 (21) 4 0 Forward
18 Roman Kienast 29/04/1984 (24) 6 1 Forward
9 Roland Linz 09/08/1981 (26) 31 7 Forward

Qualification
Qualified automatically as hosts.

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Euro 2008 Odds
TeamOdds
Spain 4
Portugal 9/2
Germany 5
Holland 11/2
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Croatia 9
France 12
Italy 11
Czech Republ 25
Sweden 33
Russia 50
Romania 40
Turkey 66
Greece 150
Austria 350
Poland 100
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