His EM analysis

Hinteregger: Unfortunately, too much went against Austria

"Krone" columnist Martin Hinteregger (right) sympathizes with his former team-mates.(Bild: GEPA)

"Krone" columnist Martin Hinteregger analyzes the European Championship. On the ÖFB exit he says: "Unfortunately, too much went against Austria!" Here is his column:

A lot seemed set for us after finishing first in Group D, the tournament tree had us dreaming of more than just the round of 16. Nevertheless, Austria were knocked out in the round of 16, while France and the Netherlands, who we had left behind in the group, are in the semi-finals. And many are asking themselves: why?

Austria showed an extremely high level against Poland and the Netherlands - they couldn't match it against Turkey. That's the only thing that still hurts a little.

The class of top nations lies in their ability to improve as the tournament progresses. The Netherlands did that from the round of 16 onwards, France are still not playing at the level you would expect from a team.

But the French have a number of players in their ranks who have experienced so many close matches at a high level, be it in the Champions League, at a World Cup or EURO. When everything is at stake at tournaments, they can handle certain situations much better and bring all their experience to bear. Which Austria didn't have in this frequency - as well as the luck of the game: while the Turkish goalkeeper fished out Baumgartner's header at the end, the Dutch went up with an own goal that was nodded in. Bad luck, which was one of the reasons for our elimination.