Lainer and Austria narrowly miss out to Italy

Stefan Lainer and the Austrian national team were defeated by Italy in the round of 16 at UEFA EURO 2020 on Saturday night. Austria narrowly lost 2-1 after taking Roberto Mancini’s side to extra time and have therefore been eliminated from the tournament.

With Stefan Lainer in the starting XI (photo: imago images/ULMER Pressebildagentur), Austria almost caused a major upset at the ongoing European Championship on Saturday night. Lainer also started all three of Austria’s group stage matches. With the score goalless after 90 minutes, Franco Foda’s team took Italy to extra time but lost out 2-1 against the four-time world champions.

At Wembley Stadium in London, the Italians dominated the first half of the match but were unable to take the lead. Austria emerged reinvigorated after the break and created a number of opportunities against the Azzurri, while also defending solidly. In the 65th minute, Marko Arnautović had the ball in the back of the net as he headed home a cross, but this was ruled out due to offside. Ten minutes later, Lainer was fouled by Matteo Pessina in the penalty area, but Borussia's right-back was also offside.

After an action-packed 90 minutes of football failed to find a winner, the game went to extra time. It wasn’t long before Italy struck to take the lead in the first period, as Federico Chiesa finished brilliantly (95’), before Matteo Pessina doubled the advantage (105’). Despite the deficit, Franco Foda’s team did not give up and fought their way back into the match through a Saša Kalajdžić header (114’). However, this was not enough to inspire a fightback for Austria. “You could see the self-belief that the team had in themselves. All of Austria can be very proud of this team,” said head coach Foda after the match.