Austria – France: France Fare Well In Toughest Test (0-1)

Pre-tournament favorites France started off their Euros campaign with a tough fixture against Austria, whom many regarded as potential dark horses. Ralf Rangnick’s side showed why that was the case with one of the best and most well-coordinated out-of-possession performances in an international match in recent memory, let alone this tournament.

Tactical analysis and match report by Neel Shelat.

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After failing to qualify for the World Cup under Franco Foda, Austria were reinvigorated under Ralf Rangnick. Going into the Euros, his win percentage with them was greater than any of his previous club coaching jobs at an impressive 59%. Drawn in a tough group with France and the Netherlands, his side had to maintain that form and bring their A-game to Germany.

France, for their part, had a good deal of expectations to contend with themselves having almost universally been touted as pre-tournament favorites. That was nothing they were not used to, though, and their record in major tournaments under Didier Deschamps is proof of the fact that they can more than cope with it. With an established formula to work with, there was nothing to suggest that they could not win the Euros and complete their set of international trophies in this generation.

Austria lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation with Patrick Pentz in goal behind Stefan Posch, Kevin Danso, Maximilian Wöber and Philipp Mwene in the back line. Nicolas Seiwald partnered Florian Grillitsch in midfield whilst Konrad Laimer, Christoph Baumgartner and Marcel Sabitzer formed the trio behind striker Michael Gregoritsch.

France sprung no surprises save for starting N’Golo Kanté at the base of their midfield ahead of Eduardo Camavinga, with typical first choice Aurélien Tchouaméni presumably not fit enough to start. Behind him was a back four of Jules Koundé, Dayot Upamecano, William Saliba and Theo Hernández, all ahead of goalkeeper Mike Maignan. Adrien Rabiot and Antoine Griezmann were the other two midfielders, whilst Ousmane Dembélé and Marcus Thuram supported Kylian Mbappé in the attack.

France’s minor tweaks in possession

Kanté had not only been out of the French national team fold for a while but had also not played club football in Europe this season, so he was sure to attract a good deal of scrutiny from the Austrians. He was sure to hold up defensively, but the in-possession side of things was where the real questions would be asked because he is not quite as good as Tchouaméni in that respect.

Anticipating this, Deschamps made a few minor tweaks to the French setup in possession. Most notable among them was his use of Koundé as more of a third center-back than overlapping fullback in a manner that very much resembled his role for Xavi’s Barcelona. That added an extra body in the first line of France’s buildup structure and gave them numerical superiority there, opening up progression channels outside of midfield.

That was crucial because the most pronounced difference between Kanté and Tchouaméni seemed to be in terms of ball progression. The Al Ittihad midfielder did complete 46/54 passes, but only two of them entered the final third from open play. His role in this respect really was to keep things ticking by circulating the ball, for which he had support from Rabiot. The Juventus midfielder seemed to be instructed to not make his typical late runs into the final third, instead staying around Kanté to form what often looked like a 3-2 base structure.

Those two things were intentional, but the personnel selection also caused one inadvertant tweak. Thuram started as the central forward but has the profile of at least a slightly left-leaning attacker and certainly is not a target striker in the ilk of Olivier Giroud. As a result, he often drifted out to the left channel and rather got in the way of Mbappé at times, certainly not supporting him with hold-up play as the ex-Chelsea striker used to do.

Having established all of this, we can now read France’s passmap from the game:

Quite clearly, their progression predominantly came through the fullback-to-winger route rather than through the middle. Of course, it helps to have such threatening wingers as Dembélé and Mbappé who ensured their team remained very threatening when they got forward, but France were clearly stifled to some extent.

Austria press to impress

The biggest reason behind France’s inability to progress centrally was Austria’s defensive setup, which was by far the best we have seen at the Euros in terms of both preparation and execution. Indeed, you would do well to think of a better out-of-possession performance in these respects in international football history.

As was expected, they set up in Rangnick’s typical 4-4-2/4-2-2-2 block, prioritizing central compactness. They did not sink in deep and absorb pressure, but instead started in a medium block position and looked to push their opponents back with incredibly well-coordinated pressing triggers.

Against France’s right-biased back line, the most common pattern was this: Gregoritsch initiated the press with a slanting run into Saliba, forcing him across to Upamecano. Baumgartner then jumped at a similar angle with the midfielders latching on to their France counterparts (especially Seiwald; Grillitsch also had to concern himself with Griezmann and ensure a center-back was in range before jumping), leaving Koundé as the most obvious passing option. Going to him, though, would invite Sabitzer to close him down at an angle that used the touchline to his advantage, forcing him into a corner.

12th minute: A typical scenario in which Austria push out of their medium block to press, with the front two making angled runs to close down the French center-backs.

That is, of course, an inadequate description that only explores one scenario of Austria’s out-of-possession play. It does well to show their principles, though, as a similar approach was adopted to press on the right side and the slightly deeper positioning of Baumgartner discouraged passes into midfield initially. The key to success, of course, was the coordinated timing of the Austrian forwards and midfielders’ jumps, which was incredibly impressive for an international side. The quality across the French side from the world-class ball-playing defenders to the superstar forwards made it impossible to completely lock them up, but Austria came about as close to doing so as can be reasonably expected.

Competent possession-play keeps Austria in it

A super solid defensive performance in itself is not enough to challenge the mighty French as they can easily wear down a block or get in behind a press on numerous occasions over ninety minutes. Any team wanting to get a result against them also needs to have clear ideas in possession to pose an attacking threat rather than just hoofing it long.

The good news is that France do not really press much, instead opting to sit in a medium block. The reason behind that is at least partly the counterattacking threat of Mbappé, who is given a free license to stand wherever he wants whilst his other nine outfield teammates do the real defending. As a result, a good bit of possession-play can certainly lead to chances created against France.

Austria firmly ticked this box too. They adopted a fairly fluid approach in possession with a heavy emphasis on congesting the center. The base varied from a 2-2 structure to a 3-1 structure either with Seiwald splitting the center-backs or Grillitsch dropping to their left, whilst both wide midfielders tucked inside close to Baumgartner leaving only the fullbacks out wide. Their aim definitely was to progress through the middle, and they were quite successful at it thanks to the fluidity of their base and quick interplay among the more advanced midfielders.

Of course, Austria did not create more chances than their opponents but they did fashion some presentable openings and could easily have scored on another day – both before and after the opener. Beyond just the attacking threat they could pose, though, their 52% possession helped regularly alleviate pressure off their defensive block. Additionally the central congestion in their possession-play also served to create a very good platform to counterpress from, so they could limit France’s counterattacking threat in this way.

Takeaways

Austria can allow themselves to be a tad disappointed with the result because there were few flaws in their performance besides Wöber’s momentary headloss. They can take a lot of encouragement from this performance, though, and based on what the Netherlands and Poland showed in their fixture, Rangnick’s side should really think of themselves as favorites for second place in the group.

France should be very pleased with both their performance and result. They arguably have the best squad in the tournament and certainly the best starting eleven with world-class quality from the front to the back, and that was the difference in this game. The quality of Austria’s performance was such that this game will quite possibly be one of the toughest tests they face in this tournament, so the outcome of it proves that they are very much worthy of the favorites tag.

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