Austria overpower Robert Lewandowski's Poland to keep Euro 2024 dream alive

Emphatic 3-1 defeat pushes Poles closer towards early exit

Austria's Marko Arnautovic celebrates with teammates after scoring his team's third goal against Poland in their Euro 2024 Group D match at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. AFP

Austria kept their hopes of making it the Euro 2024 knockout stage alive following a superb second-half performance that sealed a 3-1 win over Poland on Friday.

Gernot Trauner, Christian Baumgartner and Marko Arnautovic all got on the scoresheet to push the Poles closer to elimination.

The Austrians, who lost to France in their opener, survived a spirited first-half comeback in which Poland equalised and came close to taking the lead before the wheels came off in the second half as they slumped to a second loss in the tournament.

Robert Lewandowski returned from a thigh injury as a substitute for Poland but could not help his team make inroads against Ralf Rangnick's sturdy side.

Poland striker Krzysztof Piatek levelled Trauner's opener, but Baumgartner and Arnautovic's second-half goals earned Austria three vital points.

With Austria and Poland both bordering host nation Germany, it was no surprise to see a sold-out stadium and a raucous crowd at the Olympiastadion, with both teams defeated in their opening matches and desperate for victory.

Poland supporters roared when captain and all-time top scorer Lewandowski appeared on the big screen but he was only fit to start on the bench.

Robert Lewandowski of Poland after the defeat to Austria in Berlin. EPA

Austria dominated the opening stages and Trauner powered home a header at the near post from the enterprising Phillipp Mwene's cross.

Piatek levelled for Poland after half an hour, staying calm in the box when a rebound fell his way and slotting into the bottom corner.

With the game level approaching the hour mark, Poland coach Michal Probierz sent on Lewandowski, who took the captain's armband.

Showing little concern about his injury, the forward charged around and quickly picked up a booking for catching Philipp Lienhart with his arm.

Austria regained the lead after 67 minutes when Arnautovic cleverly stepped over a pass received by Baumgartner, who struck the bottom corner.

Baumgartner celebrated wildly with Rangnick and gave the former interim Manchester United coach credit.

"He supports me every day and gave me a lot of strength at half-time," said the midfielder.

"He talked to me for three or four minutes, so the thanks went to him too."

Veteran captain Arnautovic, 35, sealed the win with a late penalty after Poland goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny felled Marcel Sabitzer.

Coach Rangnick struggled to contain his happiness, stating: "The first 20 minutes were maybe perfect for us. We should have led by more than 1-0, and then we kind of lost our way and started losing the ball. That's why we had to make a few changes in the second half, and once we did we took full control."

Poland can no longer finish in the top two and need to defeat France to have any chance of progressing as one of the four best third-placed teams.

Poland midfielder Przemyslaw Frankowski said there were very few positives for his side.

"We knew how important this game was. We were interested only in victory. Now we feel very disappointed. We were prepared well for Austria on paper, but paper and reality is sometimes very different," Frankowski said.

"Of course, you can say that from such tournaments you can still take something positive, like experience and so on as we have lot of young players. But as for today, I don't even want to look for positives as we simply lost an important game."