Austria aim for quarter-finals

Wednesday, 7 February 2007
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As Austria prepare for tonight's friendly against Malta, coach Josef Hickersberger told uefa.com the co-hosts are targeting a last-eight place at UEFA EURO 2008™.

Second spell
Capped 39 times by the country between 1968 and 1978, Hickersberger started his second spell as Austria coach in January 2006 with the national team in sluggish form. However, following friendly wins against Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Trinidad and Tobago at the end of last year, he feels confidence is up. "We're currently ranked about 60th in the world by FIFA and our goal is to make it through to be among the best eight teams in Europe," the coach told uefa.com. "That's a lofty goal, and we know it is ambitious, but we definitely want to make it through to the quarter-finals at UEFA EURO 2008™."

Key victories
The former FK Austria Wien favourite could not overemphasise how important those victories last year were, admitting that he felt his second spell as national team coach could have easily come to a premature end had results not gone in his favour. "The team really needed to experience success again," he said. "The matches were important not only for the players' self-confidence but for the overall mood for Austrian football. For me personally, the victories were vital for my survival because without them the situation would have become extremely tenuous for me."

Changing generations
The coach maintains that previous disappointing results were a symptom of a change of generations in his squad. "Austria missed out in qualifying for the 2006 FIFA World Cup with a very experienced team, so we had to make a transition to younger players and this process was obviously rather difficult." A 2-1 win against Switzerland in Innsbruck in October finally gave Austria hope that the worst days were now behind them. As Hickersberger said: "That gave the team a huge lift and it helped release a lot of pent-up energy." Now he hopes Austria can build upon their strengths as the finals approach.

Key strength
"Our strength is, more than anything else, our team's cohesion," he said. "There's an extraordinary team spirit. What we want to improve upon in the future is our speed. We want to play at a much faster pace and we have to be able to do that at EURO 2008™ if we want to be successful." In order to sharpen their competitive instincts, Hickersberger has scheduled friendly games against the likes of France, Scotland, Germany and the Netherlands in the run-up to the finals, something which he believes will force his side to hone their style.

Added incentive
He said: "We don't have any qualifiers so we have to work to ensure that the players approach the international matches not as just any ordinary scheduling obligation but rather that they go into each match with the same enthusiasm and passion that they displayed in the last few international matches. We have made a conscious effort to pick strong opponents for our friendly matches. As we get closer to the finals, the opponents will get even stronger. We will have to play against the strongest teams in Europe at the tournament and we will be wanting to win those matches."

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