Austria scrape past North Macedonia at Euro 2020

Austria defeated North Macedonia to earn their first win at Euro 2020.

The 3-1 scoreline flattered Austria with two goals inside the final 12 minutes giving them the victory.

Stefan Lainer’s volley gave Austria the lead before Goran Pandev capitalised on an Austrian defensive mistake to bring the scores level at halftime.

Michael Gregoritsch and Marko Arnautovic scored late on though to steal the win for Austria.

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Austria started as the better team and took the lead with a superbly taken volley from Lainer after Marcel Sabitzer’s cross.

Sasa Kalajdzic nearly added a second just minutes later but his shot was saved by Stole Dimitrievski.

37-year-old Pandev equalised after a series of errors in the Austria defence. First, a clearance rebounded off Sabitzer into the path of Aleksander Trajkovski. Goalkeeper Daniel Bachmann then collided with teammate David Alaba and fumbled the ball to allow Pandev to score into an open goal.

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North Macedonia could have taken the lead after the break but Bachmann redeemed himself with a superb save from Boban Nikolov’s shot.

Gregoritsch netted the winning goal for Austria in the 78th minute when he got onto the end of Alaba’s cross to finish into the bottom left corner.

Arnautovic completed the scoring late on when he rounded the goalkeeper before finishing from 12 yards.

Cover Photo: “Austrian flag” by James Cridland is licensed under CC BY 2.0

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