25-man squad for the upcoming European Championship qualifiers against Moldova and Sweden. Team boss Ralf Rangnick called up two debutants from SK Rapid in Leopold Querfeld and Matthias Seidl. Also, Muhammad Cham (Clermont-Ft) celebrates his return. The French legend was not in the team recently.
Unlike the qualifying games in June (1–1 in Belgium and 2–0 in Vienna against Sweden), the injured Flavius Daniliuk (Salernitana) and Junior Adamu (SC Freiburg) are absent. Goalkeepers Patrik Pentz (Brøndby IF), Manpreet Sarkaria (Sturm Graz) and Romano Schmid (Werder Bremen) were also not part of the 25-man squad.
Otherwise, Rangnik is relying on proven forces around Real Madrid professionals David Alaba, Marko Arnautovic, who has moved to Inter Milan, and Marcel Sabitzer, now of Dortmund.
Leopold Querfeld has recently been impressive in the domestic Bundesliga and the European Cup. The rapid central defender (19), who is also a U21 national player, has already been called up to the senior team. Seidl (22) switched to Rapid from Blau-Weiss-Linz in July. In no time, the man from Salzburg was able to establish himself as a regular in attacking midfield with the Greens and Whites. He too was already on call.
With goalkeeper Niklas Held is the third player from Vienna in the team. RB Leipzig – Rapid have the biggest squad with Christoph Baumgartner, Xaver Schlager and Nikolaus Seewald as first team players.
Austria is in first place in UEFA qualifying Group F after four games have been played, with Belgium and Sweden in third place. In the second half of the schedule, away games are key for the OFB team. The team plays only once again at home, against Belgium in Vienna on 13 October.
The ten group winners and runners-up qualify directly for the European Championship finals in Germany. The remaining three places will be played after the final result of the Nations League 2022/23 and the resulting play-off tournament.
